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FRANKDN IN 1777. 

AFTER THE PRINT REPRODUCED FROM THE DRAWING OF COCHIN. 



Benjamin Jfianf^Un 

PRINTER, STATESMAN 

PHILOSOPHER AND PRACTICAL 

CITIZEN 

1706-1790 



BY 



/ 



EDWARD -vOBINS 

n 
Author of *' Echoes of the Playhouse," etc. 




G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK & LONDON 
^be IknickerbocKec press 

1898 
U^ TWOCOPIE 



2nd COPY, 
1898. 



iVED< 



£■30? 



«194 



Copyright, 1898 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



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PREFACE 

HE writer who puts forth a Hfe of 
Benjamin Franklin may feel tempted 
to apologise for his seeming audacity. 
The literature devoted to the career 
of this great American is volumin- 
ous, and the works of Sparks, Bigelow, Parton, Mc- 
Master, and Morse form in themselves a noble 
tribute to his many-sided genius. Yet the years of 
this typical American were so full of action and 
variety, so rich in interesting detail, and so import- 
ant in their general results, that the presentation of 
a record of them considered from a new point of 
view, is a congenial occupation which calls for no 
excuse. It would indeed be difficult to lay too 
much stress upon the story of one whose practical 
devotion to the common good should excite the 
liveliest admiration, particularly at a time when we 
hear loud complaints about " political corruption," 
** civic demoralisation," and the like. Franklin was 
the embodiment of public spirit. His curious com- 
bination of lofty patriotism and worldly sense offers 
a perennial object-lesson to the average statesman 
or average citizen of to-day, while his readiness to 

iii 



Iv Preface 

serve his country, his province, or America at large, 
might be recalled with profit by those inconsistent 
voters who, although they refuse to share in the 
burden of government, cry out lustily for adminis- 
trative reforms. 

I need not, therefore, offer any plea of extenua- 
tion for thus adding to the formidable mass of 
Frankliniana, beyond acquitting myself of any vain 
desire to compete with, or to imitate, the bio- 
graphies of the past. My purpose has been to give, 
as it were, a composite picture of the man, to show 
his character and activities, and to touch briefly 
upon the national conditions which brought the 
latter into play. That the narrative has been chosen 
as the forerunner of a series of biographical studies 
on American subjects, is an honour of which I am 
fully appreciative. I desire also to express my ac- 
knowledgments for the valuable counsel received 
during the preparation of my work at the rooms of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and my 
special indebtedness to Messrs. John W. Jordan 
and Thomas Allen Glenn. 

Philadelphia, February i, 1898. 




CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. __ 

PACK 

THE "father of THE MAN " ( 1 706-1 7 27) . . I 

CHAPTER II. 
AN EDITOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL (1728-1740) . 33 

CHAPTER III. 
THE SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC (1736-I754) . 62 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE PHILOSOPHER IN MARTIAL MOOD (1755-1756). 92 

CHAPTER V. 
A BATTLE WITH THE PENNS (1756-1762) . . II9 

CHAPTER VI. 
IN THORNY PATHS (1762-1765) .... 144 

CHAPTER VII. 
WORKING FOR THE COLONIES (1766-1773) . . 175 



vi Contents 

CHAPTER VIII. 



PAGE 



"a man of letters " (i 773-1774) . . . 200 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE (1774-1776). 224 

CHAPTER X. 
THE MISSION TO FRANCE (1776-1778) . . . 253 

CHAPTER XI. 
PLAV AND POLITICS (1777-1783) .... 278 

CHAPTER XII. 
A RETROSPECT (1746-1783) 3OI 

CHAPTER XIII. 
FINAL DAYS (1784-1790) 325 




ILLUSTRATIONS 



FRANKLIN IN 1 777 . . . . Frofitispiece 

After the print reproduced from the drawing of 
Cochin. 

TITLE-PAGE OF CICERO'S " CATO MAJOR" . . 40 

One of Franklin's earlier publications. 

franklin's puzzle, how to make money. . 46 

Reproduced from a copper-plate print by permis- 
sion of Mrs. Frances H. Hoyt. 

THE PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY. THE OLD BUILDING 

ON FIFTH STREET, NOW DEMOLISHED . . 56 

From the engraving by W. Birch & Son. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA . 90 

From an old engraving by W. Birch & Son. 

THOMAS PENN . . . . . . . I18 

From a painting owned by the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania, and copied by M. I. Naylor, 
from the portrait in possession of Major 
Dugald Stuart. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN . . . . . . 1 40 

From a painting by Charles Willson Peale, owned 
by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



vlli Illustrations 



SECOND STREET, PHILADELPHIA, SHOWING THE OLD 

COURT-HOUSE TO THE LEFT . . . l66 

From an engraving made by W. Birch & Son. 

GREAT BRITAIN TRUNCATED ..... 226 
After the emblematical design prepared by Frank- 
lin and engraved for him on copper-plate. 

carpenters' HALL, PHILADELPHIA, WHEREIN MET 

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS . . 230 

Reproduced from a photograph by F. Gutekunst, 
Philadelphia. 

THE EARL OF CHATHAM ..... 236 

From an oil painting in the possession of the His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania. 

franklin's credentials as minister . . . 254 
Photographed by the permission of the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania. 

beaumarchais ....... 262 

franklin found by DIOGENES .... 266 

From an old French engraving. 

MARIE ANTOINETTE ...... 276 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ...... 288 

From an oil painting in the possession of the His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania. 

THE AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSION .... 294 
After the unfinished painting by Benjamin West in 
the possession of Lord Belper. From a photo- 
graph bequeathed by Chas. Sumner to the 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The figures, 
from the left of the picture to the right, are 
Jay, Adams, Franklin, Laurens, and W. T. 
Franklin. Reproduced from a photograph 
taken by Baldwin Coolidge. 



Illustrations 



IX 



FRANKLIN S ELECTRICAL MACHINE . . . • SH 

Owned by the Franklin Institute. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA FIREPLACE .... 32O 

THE ARMONICA ....... 324 

Instrument designed by Franklin as an improve- 
ment upon the musical glasses. 

MARITIME OBSERVAT^'ONS ..... 33O 

After designs of nautical improvements suggested 
by Franklin. 

MARITIME OBSERVATIONS ..... 34O 

After designs of nautical improvements suggested 
by Franklin. 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



CHAPTER I 



THE '' FATHER OF THE MAN 



I 706- I 727 




OME of US have heard and laughed at 
the legend of the schoolboy who, 
being asked to prepare a composition 
with Benjamin Franklin as the sub- 
ject, finally wrote the following ex- 
haustive essay: ** Benjamin Franklin was a wonder- 
ful man. He invented the Franklin stove." To 
this ingenuous student the " modern Socrates " was 
nothing more than a manufacturer of heaters, and 
the treatise bore amusing testimony to the danger 
of regarding greatness from only one point of view. 
Yet not a few better-informed persons, who are quick 
to smile at this piece of childish literature, have a 
fashion of falling into a similar error. They do not, 
to be sure, look upon the stove as the bright partic- 
ular triumph of Franklin's existence, but they are 



2 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

prone to see the man in one light, and in one light 
alone. It matters not whether that depicts him in 
the guise either of statesman, philosopher, printer, 
or mere utilitarian ; the fact remains that to examine 
this heroic and yet essentially human figure without 
considering it as a whole is to lose all sense of its 
true proportion. 

If, however, we take warning by the case of the 
boy and the stove, and give to Franklin the right 
perspective, we are impressed at once by the pic- 
turesque features of his career, and by the dra- 
matic elements with which it was frequently tinged. 
Perhaps the terms, '^ picturesque " and ^^ dramatic," 
seem startling to those who are apt to think of Frank- 
lin rather as a sage than as a man of action, yet the two 
adjectives are worthy of emphasis, and of more 
emphasis, indeed, than they usually receive. For, 
while this hero of an infant nation had nothing of 
the romantic in his spiritual or bodily equipment, 
his life was full of colour and stirring incident, with 
here and there a contrast almost theatrical in its 
nature. And of these contrasts none is more vivid 
than the one furnished by comparing the radically 
different surroundings which marked the earthly 
entrance and exit of Benjamin Franklin. He who ^ 
was to chat with kings (albeit poor specimens of the 
craft) and enjoy the incense of admiration as it came 
from many parts of the civilised world, and who was 
to die in the odour of an international reputation, 
began to work out his existence amid the not over- 
inspiring atmosphere of a soap-boiling and tallow- 
chandlering shop. 



1727] The '' Father of the Man '' 3 

Contrasts like this have since been reproduced in 
American history, and are often used to point a 
moral or adorn a biography, although there are in- 
stances of persons who, being thrown into the fierce 
light of celebrity, become anxious to conceal or to 
forget as much as possible the humbleness of their 
early years. There was none of this affectation 
about Franklin, and the story of his boyhood, 
which he tells in so entertaining and dispassionate a 
manner in the famous AutobiograpJiy ^"^ is peculiarly 
-refreshing at a time when there is a tendency in 
certain quarters of American life to attach vast im- 
portance to ancient lineage, and to linger a little too 
long and lovingly over the pedigrees of useless but 
aristocratic ancestors. Franklin was vain, after a 
frank, pardonable fashion, but there was in his com- 
position not an iota of false pride. He rather 
revelled in the fact of his being what is now styled 
a " self-made man." In the very first paragraph of 
the Autobiography he explains as one of his reasons 
for writing the memoir that " having emerged from 
the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and 
bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of 
reputation in the world, and having gone so far 
through life with a considerable share of felicity, the 
conducing means I made use of, which with the 
blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may 



* The vicissitudes which befell the original copy of Franklin's 
Autobiography form in themselves an interesting episode, and are 
duly set forth by Mr. Bigelow in the first volume of the Complete 
Works of Beniamin Franklin, G, P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 
1887. 



4 Benjamin Franklin [no6- 

like to know, as they may find some of them suit- 
able to their own situations, and therefore fit to be 
imitated." 

And yet, even the self-successful author of the 
above lines owed something to his own ancestors, 
for they bequeathed to him that virility of character 
and clearness of mind which, like the presence of 
two guardian angels, influenced his whole life. 

The Franklins from whom he took his name had 
kept a village smithy in Northamptonshire, Eng- 
land, for three centuries or more, and a rugged, 
honest, healthy lot of progenitors they seem to have 
been. Thomas Franklin, one of Benjamin's uncles, 
was a " chief mover of all public-spirited undertak- 
ings for the county or town of Northampton, and 
his own village," being endowed with much of the 
civic pride that was to shine, later on, in the nephew ; 
Benjamin, another uncle, who naturally took a laud- 
able interest in his namesake, had a sprightly mind, 
with an ingenuity not unworthy of the greater Ben, 
and a talent, like the latter, for writing indifferent 
verse; while Josiah Franklin, the father of our hero, 
was the happy possessor of a '' mechanical genius," 
a " sound understanding, and solid judgment in 
prudential matters, both in private and publick 
affairs." In short, it is only necessary to read the 
earlier portion of the Autobiography to be convinced, 
apart from other and more scientific proofs, that the 
law of heredity at times wields a mighty force. 

Josiah Franklin, this sturdy Englishman with the 
sound understanding, became a Nonconformist, and 
thereupon left the old country in 1682 to seek thq 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 5 

more congenial air of New England, bringing with 
him his wife and three children, and settling down 
peacefully in Boston. Here he discarded his trade 
of dyer to enter into the more remunerative business 
of soap-boiling and tallow-chandlering ; here the first 
Mistress Franklin had four more children and then 
died; and here, too, Josiah subsequently married 
Abiah Folger, an estimable woman whose memory 
would long since have sunk into oblivion had she 
not become in January, 1706 (January 6th, old style ; 
January i/th, new style), the mother of Benjamin. 
Were it not, likewise, for this natal incident, the 
good lady's father, Peter Folger, would hardly be 
known to fame in a hurried age, for the book in 
which he is mentioned, Cotton Mather's dust- 
covered Magnalia CJiristi Americana ^ is not to be 
found in those distributing centres of fame, the cir- 
culating libraries. But, as it happens, we listen 
with eagerness to what is written of old Peter in the 
Autobiography, and when we are told that he was a 
great advocate of liberty of conscience, the imagina- 
tion is quick to trace a likeness between grandfather 
and grandson. 

The arrival of young Benjamin made Josiah 
Franklin the proud father of fifteen children, and, 
no doubt, incited the paterfamilias to renewed exer- 
tion in the manufacture of soap and candles, for the 
family had to be fed, and incomes, at the best, were 
not very large in primitive Boston. Those were 
frugal days, when every penny counted, and the boy 
was brought up in an economical yet kindly house- 
hold. Love of kindred and the husbanding of scant 



6 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

resources must have been the prevailing virtues in 
this Puritan home, and both influences had their 
share in moulding the character of the youth who in 
after life was to be distinguished by an affectionate 
regard for his relations, and a financial wisdom 
which on occasion degenerated into parsimony. 
Furthermore, Josiah aimed to introduce at his table 
topics of conversation by no means confined to a 
discussion of what was spread thereon, and it was to 
this species of intellectual repast, wherein " little or 
no notice was ever taken of what related to the 
victuals," that Franklin owed his ability to main- 
tain, when he so desired, an absurdly simple diet. 
He could, and sometimes did, enjoy the flesh-pots 
of Egypt in more senses than one, but there was 
always behind the grosser phase of his nature the 
power of abstinence, and even of self-sacrifice. If 
he knew how to gratify his tastes he also knew how 
to subdue them, and thereby displayed strength of 
mind, if not consistency. 

Up to a certain point the youthful years of the 
boy offer nothing very striking or significant, ex- 
cepting the fact that among the lads of his own age 
Ben was always the leader. Then, as later^ he had 
the singular faculty of getting into prominence more 
through strength of character than from any appar- 
ent effort on his part. Then, as always, he might 
have been ambitious, but his fertility of resource 
kept pace with his ambition, and the one helped the 
other toward success. After two years of school 
life, during which he failed dismally in arithmetic, 
strange to say, but learned to write a good hand, he 



1727] The '^ Father of the Man " 7 

was placed at the age of ten in his father's shop, 
where the cutting of candle-wicks, filling of moulds, 
and running of errands, gave the youngster plenty 
of employment. This proved conclusively that 
Josiah had abandoned his original intention of de- 
voting his youngest son to the service of the Church 
— a change of plan which may be considered as of 
ultimate benefit both to Ben and to the Church. 
And so everything indicated that he would develop 
into a soap-boiler and chandler of the approved 
type, succeed his father in due time, grow prosper- 
ous, marry, die, and be buried in oblivion. 

Although in after life Franklin pointed out that 
cleanliness was next to godliness, he had no great 
affinity for soap so far as the making of it was con- 
cerned. He soon betrayed a vague restlessness, a 
longing for greater things, which perhaps had its 
most notable illustration in his passion for reading 
with avidity all the books he could place his hands 
on, theological pamphlets, the works of Bunyan, 
Plutarch's Lives (the latter as delightful now as 
then), Defoe's once famous Essay on Projects, and 
Cotton Mather's Essays to do Good. Mather advo- 
cated the burning of witches, like other well-meaning 
men of his ascetic cult, but for all that, he knew how 
to write Christian sentiments, and many years later, 
Franklin told the son of the pious Cotton that these 
essays had exerted a great influence upon him. So 
did the philanthropic Essay on Projects, wherein 
Defoe was so far in advance of his time as to suggest 
the establishment of colleges for girls — a heretical, 
not to say dangerous opinion for an age when a 



8 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

woman of education was looked upon with suspicion, 
as something weird and unpleasant. 

In the meantime Ben had evinced such an open 
aversion to his greasy surroundings that Josiah, 
after much fatherly consideration of his youngest 
son's prospects, apprenticed him to James Franklin, 
an older son, who was tempting fate in Boston as a 
printer. There had been some idea of making the 
boy learn the cutler's trade, but fortunately for 
posterity his cousin Samuel, to whom he was to be 
bound, wanted a substantial fee for the transaction 
(he had the true Franklin attribute of looking out 
for the pennies), and so the scheme came to naught. 
Thus the Church and cutlery had each in turn lost a 
quick-witted apprentice, and the world, which may 
have been deprived thereby of some poor sermons 
and sharp knives, would come out the gainer in the 
end. And yet the boy was not enthusiastic over his 
new trade. It was, of course, far more congenial 
to him than the soap-making business, but there 
was deep down in his childish breast that peculiar 
longing known as " wishing to go to sea." He got 
over the malady soon enough, and probably often 
laughed at it in years to come, when he had to cross 
the Atlantic in uncomfortable, uncleanly sailing 
packets, the unworthy predecessors of our" ocean 
greyhounds." 

It can be easily imagined that the apprentice's 
love of reading found stimulation in the printing- 
office of James Franklin. Books were easier to bor- 
row, and friends to lend them proved more plentiful. 
And a little later, when the lad was fourteen or 



1727] The '' Father of the Man" 9 

fifteen, he tried dipping into poetry, or rather dog- 
gerel, but to no result other than that of finding how 
utterly unsuited he was to this field of composition. 
The versifying was soon abandoned, but the reading 
continued, and there was a well-defined ambition to 
excel in prose writing. An odd volume of the 
Spectator was triumphantly secured, the essays were 
read and then rewritten from memory, after which 
came the comparison with the original. That these 
comparisons were not always odious may be inferred 
from Franklin's admission that he " sometimes had 
the pleasure of fancying that in certain particulars 
of small import," he *' had been lucky enough to 
improve the method of the language." Even the 
Spectator was not above improvement. 

When he was about sixteen years old the young 
printer read a book advocating a vegetable diet. 
He accordingly followed out for a time the precepts 
of the bucolic author, saved money thereby, and 
devoted the surplus pence to the acquisition of new 
volumes — a circumstance suggesting the rather cyni- 
cal question as to whether or not many boys of the 
present year, 1898, would half starve themselves in 
order to buy literature with the coin thus accruing. 
Then we find the vegetarian delving into Locke, 
Shaftesbury, and Collins, getting very unsettled in 
his religious views, and indulging much in arguments 
on the subject with persons whom he always under- 
took to vanquish, according to the insidious Socratic 
method of disputation. They must have looked 
upon him as a bit of a bore. It was the case of the 
youth filled to overflowing with the importance of 



lo Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

his newly acquired learning, and we all know that at 
this stage he is generally a safe young gentleman to 
avoid. 

But these were boyish weaknesses. The real busi- 
ness and struggles of Franklin's life were about to 
begin in earnest, and he was first to try his hand at 
what we now term " journalism." The journalism 
of the past and the journalism of the present have, 
however, few points of likeness, and this is the more 
readily to be understood when we contrast one of 
the imposing newspapers of to-day, with its blanket- 
sheet editions, its throng of editors, printers, and 
miscellaneous employes, its enterprise and its prodi- 
gal expenditure of money in the search of news, 
with the petty pamphlet which modestly appeared 
in Boston during the latter part of September, 1690, 
and thus established a claim to being the " first 
American newspaper. " The number had four pages 
(the last page was blank), with two columns on a 
page, and the size of each page was seven by eleven 
inches ! Piihlick Occurrences Foreign and Domes- 
tic was the title of the sheet ; it was, according to 
the prospectus, to be published once a month, or 
oftener, " if any glut of occurrences happen," and 
was to have an account of " such considerable things 
as have arrived unto our Notice." The aims of the 
Occurrences were laudable, even ideal, and it is 
interesting in this era of libel suits and " yellow 
journalism " to mark that the publisher promised, 
" toward the Curing, or at least the Charming of 
the Spirit of Lying," that when " there appears 
any material mistake in anything that is collected, 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " ii 

it shall be corrected in the next." This advocate 
of truth — this really worthy forerunner of the 
"Fourth Estate " in America — began its career 
without advertisements, that feature so essential to 
the life of the modern paper, and without editorials. 
There are some cynics of to-day, by the way, who 
think that advertisement plays entirely too promi- 
nent a part in the management of the average news- 
paper, and who could even dispense with editorials. 
The career of Piihlick Occurrences was brief, 
despite the praiseworthy intentions of its founder. 
In four days the paper was suppressed, possibly be- 
cause the editor (or printer, as he was then termed) 
showed a tendency to discuss too freely the actions 
of those in authority. He had yielded to the temp- 
tation of writing editorials, and that doomed him. 
Fourteen years later John Campbell, the postmaster 
of Boston, started the News Letter, a stupid venture 
which finally attained the enormous circulation of 
three hundred copies, and was wont to print Euro- 
pean news anywhere from five to thirteen months 
late. Then, in December, 1719, came the Boston 
Gazette, founded by the new postmaster, William 
Brocker, and in the printing of this James Franklin 
was engaged. The postmaster lost his place; his 
successor bought the Gazette, and James, who was 
no longer employed to issue the sheet, began 
(August, 1 721) the publication of an enterprise of 
his own, the New England Coiirant. It was a lively 
affair, and what we should now characterise as essen- 
tially up to date; public matters were touched upon 
with independence and humour. The Gazette by 



12 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

comparison seemed duller than ever, as did the 
Nezvs Letter. The three papers were soon engaged 
in a triangular warfare that would have done justice 
to the bickering spirit of three Arizona editors 
obliged by an unkind fate to live in the same town. 

The young but rapidly expanding Benjamin 
jumped into this fray with nimbleness and ready 
wit. Not content with assisting in printing the 
paper, and then carrying it around the town to 
subscribers, he must needs try his hand at con- 
tributing to it. James Franklin, he tells us, "had 
some ingenious men among his friends, who amused 
themselves by writing little pieces for this paper, 
which gained it credit and made it more in demand, 
and these gentlemen often visited us. Hearing 
their conversations and their accounts of the appro- 
bation their papers were received with, I was excited 
to try my hand among them ; but, being still a boy, 
and suspecting that my brother would object to 
printing anything of mine in his paper if he knew it 
to be mine, I contrived to disguise my hand, and, 
writing an anonymous paper, I put it in at night, 
under the door of the printing-house. It was found 
in the morning, and communicated to his writing 
friends when they called in as usual. They read it, 
commented on it in my hearing, and I had the ex- 
quisite pleasure of finding it met with their appro- 
bation, and that, in their different guesses at the 
author, none were named but men of some charac- 
ter among us for learning and ingenuity." 

A familiar story, to be sure, but like some pretty 
fairy-tale it bears repetition. And how one can 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 13 

read between the lines the shrewdness which always 
ran through Franklin's character, like a wee bit of 
the fox lurking in the composition of some majestic 
lion! Ben suspected, no doubt, that too much 
ability on his part would bring down upon him the 
jealousy of a less brilliant brother, and so he chose 
to introduce his literary wares with secrecy. Those 
wares were, it is believed, the " Do Good Papers," 
a series of articles more or less after the Addisonian 
manner. One of them, representing a dream, was a 
fling at that young scholastic institution. Harvard 
College. The graduates of the college, typified in 
the dream as the Temple of Learning, did not all 
fare very well according to the imprudent young 
critic, for many of them " lived as poor as church- 
mice, being unable to dig, and ashamed to beg, and 
to live by their wits it was impossible." And yet, 
in time. Harvard would reward the writer with a 
degree. 

The office of the Coiirant must have witnessed 
many an interesting incident, many an exciting de- 
bate, but none of them more interesting or more 
exciting, perhaps, than those which marked the small- 
pox controversy. This dread disease had made 
itself felt in Boston after the wholesale manner in 
which it was accustomed to stalk about, grim and re- 
morseless, during the early portion of the eighteenth 
century. The Mathers, more liberal in the art of 
medicine than in the treatment of witches, strongly 
advocated the new experiment of inoculation ; the 
Courant as resolutely opposed the innovation, and 
as a consequence there was hard feeling, and a war 



14 Benjamin Franklin [noe- 

of very bad words. Increase Mather did what later 
readers have done when the opinions of their papers 
were not to their liking. He stopped his subscrip- 
tion to the Coiiranty abused James Franklin in terms 
of the choicest vituperation, lamented the degener- 
acy of New England, and pointedly hinted at the 
expediency of suppressing the articles of the of- 
fender. In the meantime, the controversy (which 
waxed so high that some miscreant threw a fire- 
grenade into the Mather house) had the effect of 
increasing the circulation of the paper, and an ob- 
servant reader may be pardoned for suspecting that 
the publisher had, through all the din and unpleas- 
antness of battle, a keen idea of the value of adver- 
tising. 

But greater troubles than inoculation disagree- 
ments were in store for the infant journal, and 
through these Benjamin was to make his debut as a 
publisher and editor. The Cojirant had criticised 
with asperity the ways and measures of the Boston 
authorities, who, biding their hour, finally had 
James Franklin brought before them for printing a 
supposed news paragraph poking fun at their slow- 
ness of action. The Council interrogated the printer. 
He declined to name the writer of the paragraph. 
Ben also sturdily refused an answer to the same 
question — an independence of spirit for which he 
was excused on the ground, presumably, that an ap- 
prentice should not be called upon to testify against 
the interests of his master. James, less fortunate 
than his brother, spent a month in prison. During 
that time Ben directed the fortunes of the rapidly 



1727] The '' Father of the Man '' 15 

growing if somewhat adventurous Courant. Six 
months later James printed a bitter article reflecting 
so savagely upon the governing powers that he was 
forbidden thereafter to publish the Courant or any 
other paper, unless under the supervision of the 
Secretary of the province. 

" There was a consultation held in our printing-house among his 
friends [says Franklin, in writing of his brother's predicament], what 
he should do in this case. Some proposed to evade the order by 
changing the name of the paper ; but my brother, seeing inconven- 
iences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better way, to let it be 
printed for the future under the name of Benjamin Franklin ; and to 
avoid the censure of the Assembly, that might fall on him as still 
printing it by his apprentice, the contrivance was that my old indent- 
ure should be returned to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, 
to be shown on occasion, but to secure to him the benefit of my serv- 
ice, I was to sign new indentures for the remainder of the term, 
which were to be kept private." 

As Franklin adds, a ** very flimsy scheme it was," 
but it was put into effect, and Benjamin became the 
ostensible printer of the Courant. The elder brother 
was in reality the controlling spirit, but the ex- 
apprentice wrote for the paper, and often turned the 
dart of his wit upon the austerity and what he chose 
to consider the hypocrisy of certain professors of the 
accepted religion. In short, the Courant seems to 
have been anything but a conservative sheet, and its 
articles sometimes amused, and sometimes scandal- 
ised the Puritans who read it, ignorant as many of 
them were that an important contributor to that fun 
and scandal was the sprightly Ben himself. The 
wonder of it is that the Courant was allowed to exist 
at all, for the press was in its infancy, and there were 



i6 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

no theories as to liberty of public opinion, so far as 
the aforesaid liberty might concern a printer. In 
the eyes of the Boston magistrates a paper was 
something to be tolerated or suppressed according 
to their own august will. 

As it happened, the Cotirant was soon to lose the 
services of its ostensible publisher. The two brothers 
had not been on the best of terms of late; Ben was 
saucy and provoking and puffed up, no doubt, with 
a boyish sense of his own talents and importance, 
while James, on his side, had become jealous of the 
youngster. To the impertinences of the lad the 
elder responded with blows, and it may be imagined 
that this state of affairs was not to last very long. 
As a result of some fresh altercation Ben made up 
his mind to leave the printing-office, shrewdly sur- 
mising that, his old indentures having been can- 
celled, and his brother being afraid to produce the 
new ones (for fear of exposing his little conspiracy 
against the Council), it would be very easy to depart 
unmolested by the law, which bound an apprentice 
to fill out his term. Not a strictly honourable 
episode in Franklin's history, and he afterward was 
quick to admit that he took an unfair advantage of 
his brother — " one of the first errata of my life," 
he terms it. But that point of honour had no con- 
sideration at the moment, so the inevitable break 
came. Nor was James more magnanimous, for he 
asked the other printers of Boston to refuse employ- 
ment to his brother. 

This fraternal move decided the apprentice to 
shake the dust of the Hub from his feet, and none 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 17 

the less was he impelled thereto upon reflecting that 
he had become, by his Courant diatribes, a persona 
non grata to not a few of his fellow-townsmen. 
There were many things in his native place which 
he would have reformed, and he had already learned 
that to be a reformer is not, necessarily, to be popu- 
lar. Furthermore, Josiah Franklin sympathised with 
James, and no encouragement under the paternal 
roof-tree was rebellious Ben to expect. Accord- 
ingly, with the aid of John Collins, a " bookish lad " 
with whom he used to discuss and settle to his own 
satisfaction the affairs of the universe, he ran off, 
or rather sailed off, to New York in a sloop com- 
manded by a friendly captain. He soon found 
himself in that city (October, 1723), at the age of 
seventeen, without recommendation to any of its 
inhabitants, and with no more money in his pocket 
than the little he had raised by the sale of his 
precious books. This was the youthful Benjamin 
Franklin, as revealed to us in the Autobiography, 
and there is no reason to doubt the truth of the 
picture — a rugged, sturdy fellow, full of confidence 
in himself, canny, clear of head, with undefined 
ambitions, and if not always as disinterested as one 
might wish, at least, full of that indomitable spirit 
which was to waft him, slowly but steadily, toward 
a noble success. 

It has been said that a printer who understands 
his trade need never starve. Probably, Ben was im- 
pressed with the force of this axiom, for upon arriv- 
ing in New York he at once sought out William 
Bradford, the pioneer typesetter of Pennsylvania, 



i8 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

now a practical exile from the Quaker province. 
The story of the young man's experience during 
this journey is familiar enough. How he was ad- 
vised by Bradford to go to Philadelphia (where lived 
his son, Andrew Bradford), how he took the veter- 
an's advice, crossed over to Amboy by boat, after 
several exciting adventures, including his rescue of 
a drunken Dutchman from drowning, and how he 
trudged on foot through New Jersey to quiet Bur- 
lington — these bits of itinerary have been described 
again and again, as, no doubt, they will be re- 
described for many a year to come. A good story 
is always in order, and thus even the jaded historian 
finds something fresh and entertaining in the early 
wandering of the man whose son was, in after years, 
to become Governor of the very State through which 
the father wended his humble, uncomfortable way. 
Contrasts of this kind never lose their interest. 

At Burlington Franklin lodged with an old woman 
of limited purse, but unlimited heart ; there he 
managed to board a boat destined for Philadelphia, 
and reached his future home on a Sunday morning. 
It was a curious entry into Quaker life, when viewed 
in the light of subsequent events, and the hero of it 
never ceased to revel, pardonably enough, in the 
memory of it. 

" I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round 
by sea. I was dirty from my journey ; my pockets were stuffed out 
with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul, nor where to look for 
lodging. I was fatigued with travelling, rowing, and want of rest ; 
I was very hungry ; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch 
dollar, and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people 
of the boat for my passage." 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 19 

He bought three puffy rolls at a baker's — Philadel- 
phia bakers still sell puffy rolls — and putting a roll 
under each arm, and eating the third, walked up 
Market Street, passing a house where stood young 
Miss Read, his future wife, who was much struck 
with the ridiculous appearance of the boy» That is 
the incident as Franklin has recorded it, and while 
skeptical persons have ventured to hint that the 
philosopher chose to paint the scene in colours a trifle 
too vivid for actual fact, there is no necessity to 
agree with them. Perhaps, if it were less familiar, 
less hackneyed, no one would dream of smiling. 

The wanderer spent his first night in Philadelphia 
at a tavern on Water Street, and repaired the next 
morning to the printing-office of Andrew Bradford. 
There, to his surprise, he found Andrew's father, 
who had travelled on from New York on horseback, 
a mode of conveyance which the Bostonians had not 
been able to afford. There was no opening for the 
boy with Bradford ; possibly Keimer, another printer 
lately established in town, might aid him. So to 
Keimer Benjamin went, accompanied by old Brad- 
ford. After a conversation in which Keimer made 
the apprentice show his proficiency as a typesetter, 
and in which he incidentally exposed his aims and 
business secrets to Bradford (whom he did not 
recognise), it was agreed that the newcomer should 
be given work in a short time. Then Bradford de- 
parted, and Keimer was disagreeably surprised upon 
learning that he had been unbosoming himself to 
the father of his rival. As for Franklin, he had 
already discovered that Bradford was a " crafty old 



20 Benjamin Franklin [^706- 

sophister," who had willingly drawn out the con- 
fiding Keimer, and that the latter was a *' mere 
novice." Wise Ben ! You understood human na- 
ture even then. 

Keimer has been characterised by Franklin as a 
good deal of a knave, yet withal something of a 
scholar, and very ignorant of the world. He was an 
indifferent versifier, who " set up " his own doggerel 
as it came into his head, and thus saved anyone else 
the affliction of a compulsory perusal of his poems. 
With him the stranger soon got employment, lodg- 
ing, however, with Andrew Bradford, and finally 
moving from the latter's home to the house of Mr. 
Read, father of the before-mentioned young lady, 
who was later to become Mrs, Franklin. By this 
time his chest of clothes had arrived from Boston, 
and the youth, who was not impervious in those 
salad days or a little later to the charms of feminin- 
ity, flattered himself that he made a more becoming 
appearance in the eyes of Miss Read than he had 
done when he startled her with his array of puffy 
rolls. Thus life ran on placidly for several months, 
as Franklin laboured for the poetic Keimer, spent 
pleasant evenings with young Quakers of literary 
tastes, and saved his money. He tried to forget 
Boston, and the old times there, but, likely enough, 
did not altogether succeed. Still he took comfort 
in the thought that no one in New England, barring 
his friend, the argumentative Collins, knew whither 
he had gone. Yet one of his family, a brother-in- 
law, the master of a sloop trading between Boston 
and the Delaware, heard of the runaway, wrote to 



1727] The " Father of the Man " 21 

him from New Castle, spoke of the grief of Ben's 
family over his departure, and begged him to return. 
To all of which Master Franklin wrote a polite reply, 
declined to play the Prodigal Son, and convinced 
the sailor, we are told, that he was not so much in 
the wrong as the latter had believed. 

This letter, strangely enough, brought the printer 
to the admiring attention of Sir William Keith, 
then Governor of the province of Pennsylvania. It 
was an attention which Franklin would live to wish 
that he had never excited. The beginning of the 
affair seemed, however, full of promise. Keith was 
in New Castle when the reply to the brother-in-law 
arrived, saw it, and was greatly impressed that it 
should have been written by so young a fellow. 
When he returned to Philadelphia the Governor de- 
termined to seek out the truant who could so ably 
defend himself, and one day when Keimer and his 
apprentice were hard at work the two were startled 
to see his Excellency and Colonel French, of New 
Castle, standing in front of the house. Keimer, 
thinking the visit intended for him, hurried down- 
stairs, only to find that it was the employe, not the 
master, whom the distinguished gentlemen wanted. 
Keith overwhelmed Franklin with cheap professions 
of friendliness, hurried him off with the Colonel to 
a neighbouring inn, and there, over a few glasses of 
Madeira, the Governor actually proposed that his 
protege oi an hour should set up in business for him- 
self, to which end he promised to exert all his influ- 
ence. Keith would not take no for an answer; he 
would write a letter to Franklin's father, asking 



22 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

Josiah's assistance, and everything should work to 
a charm. Finally, after dining several times with 
the Governor, and being naturally much tickled with 
the fuss made over him, Ben took a voyage to Bos- 
ton in the spring of 1724, — a short voyage, lasting a 
fortnight. 

Josiah was glad to see his boy, but, like the sen- 
sible man he was, he thought that Ben was entirely 
too young to start a printing plant of his own. 
What sort of a man was Keith, to propose so foolish 
an undertaking ? That was the question he very 
naturally asked, and if anyone had told him that 
the Governor was an emotional, insincere man, loud 
in promises, but not so loud in their fulfilment, no 
injustice would have been done. The upshot of the 
matter was that the father negatived the scheme, 
and all that the son obtained was the paternal bless- 
ings, a few small gifts, and a deal of good advice, 
including a caution to steer clear, in the printing 
business, of lampoons and libels. 

Thus thwarted, Ben determined to return to Phila- 
delphia, which he accordingly did, but not before he 
visited Brother James. Brother James was in a bad 
humour. Brother Ben behaved with gross want of 
tact, and the meeting proved a failure. On his 
journey back the sloop which was carrying the 
youngster touched at Newport. This gave him an 
opportunity to visit another brother, John, who had 
married and settled there, and to receive from him, 
unluckily enough, an order to collect in Pennsyl- 
vania a sum of thirty-five pounds currency due a 
Mr. Vernon, one of John's friends. From Newport 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 23 

Ben sailed for New York. He was disposed to be a 
trifle wild on board the sloop, got in return a good 
moral lecture from a Quaker passenger, and finally 
reached the island of Manhattan, to find awaiting 
him his companion of former days, John Collins, 
who had left Boston intending to make Philadelphia 
his home. While lingering for Franklin in New 
York, Collins spent his time in riotous living, so that 
the remainder of his journey had to be paid for by 
his friend. This circumstance finally tempted Ben, 
before reaching Philadelphia, to appropriate for their 
necessities some of the money now collected for the 
confiding Vernon — " one of the first great errata 
of my life." It was an erratmn that cost him many 
a bad quarter of an hour, and shows us that the 
young man had not yet acquired the moral firmness 
for which he was afterward distinguished. In time, 
Vernon was repaid, but Franklin never quite forgave 
himself for the weakness. 

Had it not been for the wildness of Collins, who 
suddenly degenerated from a sober, clever Puritan 
into a drunken Bohemian, the short stay in New 
York would have been a very agreeable one for 
Franklin, if for no other reason than that he again 
attracted the attention of a governor. This one was 
Governor Burnet (son of the famous Bishop), and 
the two discussed books with avidity. The other 
traveller was not in a state to visit his Excellency, 
and it was fortunate that the young fellow soon 
dropped out of Franklin's life forever. On reaching 
Philadelphia he continued to be a drag upon his 
companion, borrowing from the Vernon money, and 



24 Benjamin Franklin ['706- 

getting day by day more sottish and repellent. 
Finally Franklin rebelled, and the intimacy ended. 
Collins soon went away to the Barbadoes to become 
a tutor (poor pupils!), and nothing more was heard 
of him or the money he owed. 

Sir William Keith had, in the interval, welcomed 
Franklin back with open arms, and now he himself 
proposed to furnish the money to set the printer 
up in business. Everything was nicely arranged ; 
Franklin, in the course of several months, should 
sail for England, there to choose the stock required 
to fit out the proposed printing-house. In the 
meanwhile, he was to work with Keimer, being care- 
ful, however, to say nothing of Sir William's project. 
Accordingly, the unsuspecting compositor continued 
to labour with the unsuspecting master, the two of 
them arguing abstruse points a la Socrates, discuss- 
ing the feasibility of forming a new religious sect, 
trying a vegetarian diet, and indiscriminately in- 
dulging in the most congenial " isms " and peculiar- 
ities. Ben, although so practical in many ways, 
might have become the most hopeless of theorists, 
not to say a charlatan, had not the hard knocks of 
the world rubbed off the crotchets of his nature and 
dispelled his curious castles in the air. In addition to 
these occupations, he made love to Miss Read (whom 
it was understood he should marry on his return from 
London), and took many a delightful stroll along the 
banks of the Schuylkill with four companions of con- 
genial taste. Among them was James Ralph, a poet 
in embryo, who was to be honoured by the great 
Mr. Pope with a savage sling in the Diinciad, 



1727] The " Father of the Man " 25 

During all this time, Keith kept up his show of 
cordiality toward Franklin, talked enthusiastically 
about the letters of introduction and credit that he 
intended to give him, and never for one moment 
hinted that there would or could be the slightest 
hitch in the arrangements. When the ship for 
which he waited was about to sail, the protege 
sought out his benefactor for the promised docu- 
ments. The Governor's Secretary explained that Sir 
William was just then very busy, but would arrive at 
New Castle before the vessel touched there upon her 
way down the Delaware. This seemed plausible 
enough, and Franklin, accompanied by Ralph, who 
had vague yearnings for London poetic triumphs, 
confidingly boarded the packet. Upon reaching 
New Castle, he found that the Governor was there, 
but again the Secretary made excuses. His master 
was ** engaged in business of the utmost import- 
ance," but would send the letters to the ship, hoped 
his friend would have a good voyage, make a speedy 
return, and expressed the customary polite ct 
cceteras. All this was very comforting, but the 
letters were never delivered. The Governor, who 
loved to be popular with everybody, had the crime 
of insincerity, which so often accompanies such a 
disposition. While he had taken pains to win the 
affections and confidence of the printer, he went no 
further. His promises were broken; he had played 
the poltroon ; with deceit in his heart and lies upon 
his lips he had sent his victim across the ocean on 
an errand worse than fruitless. 

There were six or seven letters in the ship's mail- 



26 Benjamin Franklin [i7o6-< 

bag which Franklin thought might be the desired 
ones. One of them was directed to Basket, the 
King's Printer, and another to a stationer. It was 
Christmas eve (1724), when FrankHn reached Lon- 
don, and he repaired at once to the stationer, to 
whom he presented what he supposed to be a note 
from Sir WiUiam Keith. " I don't know such a 
person," said the tradesman ; but, opening the letter, 
he exclaimed: " Oh! this is from Riddlesden.* I 
have lately found him to be a complete rascal, and 
I will have nothing to do with him, nor receive any 
letters from him." With that, Mr. Stationer turns 
on his heel, and Franklin's castle in the air — a castle 
made up of an elegant press, fine type, and what not 
— falls to the ground. None of the letters were in- 
tended for him. A joyous Christmas eve for the 
young colonist! ** What shall we think," wrote 
the victim many years later, when the bitterness of 
the awakening was still fresh in his memory, " of a 
governor's playing such pitiful tricks, and imposing 
so grossly on a poor, ignorant boy ! It was a habit 
he had acquired. He wished to please everybody; 
and, having little to give, he gave expectations." 

To work ! — that was the only thing to be done ; 
the stranger's purse was scant, and the ambitious 
Ralph was actually penniless. So the two secured 
lodgings in Little Britain for the princely rate of 
three shillings and sixpence a week, and while the 
poet first tried to go on the stage and, then to start 



* Riddlesden was a Philadelphia attorney who is characterised in 
the Autobiography as " a very knave." He was a friend of Keith's, 
a fact which did not prejudice Franklin in his favQui-, 



1727] The "Father of the Man'' 27 

a paper " like the Spectator,'' the more practical 
Benjamin obtained a place in Palmer's printing- 
house. In the evenings, the two companions went 
to the play, where they doubtless admired the dash- 
ing impersonations of Wilkes, the eccentricities of 
Gibber, and the charms of the sprightly Oldfield. 
From this enjoyment Franklin acquired his pro- 
nounced taste for the drama. Later in his varied 
career, the humble theatre-goer would go to the 
play in more pomp than that vouchsafed by a seat 
among the apprentices, and would be honoured by 
the acquaintance of Garrick, now, in this winter of 
1725, an unknown boy of nine. 

As for Ralph, he proceeded to forget the wife and 
child he had left in America. Ben, hardly more 
constant, gradually grew cold in his affection for the 
absent Deborah Read, to whom, let it be said in 
shame, he wrote one letter telling her he was " not 
likely soon to return." Another of '* the great 
errata " of his life, albeit one for which he subse- 
quently sought to atone. In fine, his first London 
visit must have awakened in him a curious jumble 
of good and bad instincts — industry, frugality, and 
a desire for mental improvement on the one hand, 
and occasional exhibitions of meanness, forgetful- 
ness of his fiancee, and one disagreeable piece of 
dishonourable conduct on the other hand. The dis- 
honourable conduct need not be dwelt upon here; 
everyone who reads the Autobiography, where the 
author frankly puts it down as another erratum, re- 
members it, and the vision it furnishes is not allur- 
ing. Sufifice it to say, that as it was a species of 



28 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

unfaithfulness toward Ralph (who did not, however, 
deserve any sympathy in the matter), the friendship 
between the two came to an abrupt end. 

At Pahner's, FrankHn was employed in setting 
type for the second edition of WoUaston's Religion 
of Nature^ and, not agreeing with some of the 
author's conclusions, he wrote and printed a contro- 
versial pamphlet on the subject, styling it, ponder- 
ously, A Dissertation on Liberty and Neeessity, 
Pleasure and Pain. An audacious proceeding, to 
be sure, but one that brought the lucky pamphleteer 
to the attention of several learned men and thus 
helped to make his stay in London the more con- 
genial. Then he went to work at Watts's, a print- 
ing-house more important than Palmer's, and was 
much impressed with the amount of beer drunk by 
his companions. He persuaded many of the latter 
to give up that beverage, substituting therefor a 
porringer of hot-water gruel, seasoned with pepper, 
bread and butter — a pretty temperance lesson, were 
it not that he stood credit for the beer of less provi- 
dent printers and closely watched the pay-table on 
Saturday nights, to collect the money due him. A 
strange mixture of philanthropy and — what shall we 
call it ? — usury. Possibly, he charged no commis- 
sion for this service to the thirsty, although, even 
then, the idea of his preaching against beer and, at 
the same time, helping men to get it, is paradoxical 
to the verge of absurdity. That Franklin was care- 
ful about his pennies during this season is, at least, 
fully apparent, and it need hardly be added that he 
was not always in a position to be otherwise, partic- 



1727] The '' Father of the Man " 29 

ularly as he had lent twenty-seven pounds, in all, to 
Ralph before his break with the latter. When he 
changed his lodgings from Little Britain to Duke 
Street, he bargained with his new hostess, a widow 
of genteel bearing, to take him for the same money, 
three shillings and sixpence a week. This she 
agreed to do, but when the new boarder heard that 
he could get cheaper rates elsewhere, he thought of 
changing his quarters, agreeable as they were. The 
landlady capitulated at once. 

" She was lame in her knees with the gout, and, therefore, seldom 
stirred out of her room, so sometimes wanted company ; and hers 
was so highly amusing to me, that I was sure to spend an evening 
with her whenever she desired it. Our supper was only half an 
anchovy each, on a very little strip of bread and butler, and half a 
pint of ale between us ; but the entertainment was in her conversa- 
tion. My always keeping good hours, and giving little trouble in the 
family, made her unwilling to part with me." 

If we read further into the first London visit of 
the young American, we find that an aquatic feat of 
which he was the hero came near changing, in all 
probability, the whole tenor of his life. He swam 
from near Chelsea to Black Friars, a stretch of four 
miles, performing on the way many wondrous evo- 
lutions, upon and under the water, much to the 
delight of several admiring friends. One of these 
grew so attached to the swimmer, partly as a re- 
sult of this prowess, that he proposed to travel 
all over Europe with Franklin, working at the 
printer's trade along the route. Had Ben acted 
upon this suggestion, as he was tempted to do, 
he might have ended, Fate only knows where — 



30 Benjamin Franklin [1706- 

perhaps as Grand Vizier for an Eastern potentate, 
or anything else, ranging from an autocrat to a ped- 
dler. It was a crucial period with the youth, a 
period of transition, and his future seemed as in- 
scrutable as a Chinese puzzle. However, he did not 
foot it through the Continent, owing to the advice 
of Mr. Denham, a Philadelphia merchant then in 
London (the two had come over in the same ship), 
who offered him a clerical position in a store which 
he was to open upon his return home. Franklin 
decided to accept the situation and go back to his 
good friends the Quakers. He regretted a little 
later that he could not stay in England to open a 
swimming school — think of him as proprietor of a 
natatorium ! — and finally set sail with honest Mr. 
Denham in the July of 1726. As it was not until 
near the middle of October that the vessel reached 
Philadelphia, the trip was a wearisome one, and 
Franklin wisely helped to pass the time by keeping 
a diary and drawing up a plan for the guidance of 
his future conduct. For the matter of that, the 
hours could never hang heavily upon him ; he was 
a man of infinite resources and possessed in a high 
degree the art of interesting himself in many things 
and under all circumstances. Unlike a certain un- 
fortunate type of nineteenth-century humanity, he 
was never " bored." His mind was an active, 
healthy one, ever observing, ever working, and he 
could see more in a day than do many persons in 
the course of years. As a result he enjoyed nearly 
every moment of his life ; even sorrow could not 
deprive him for any great length of time of his zest 



1727] The ^' Father of the Man '' 31 

for existence. Thus it is that we find him extract- 
ing pleasure from a trip which to the globe-trotting 
men and women of to-day would appear unutterably 
dreary, and securing plenty of material for thought 
and record. 

It may be imagined that when Franklin got back 
to Philadelphia, he kept his eyes open, as usual, nor 
did he attempt to close them when he passed on the 
street the shamefaced Keith, now no longer gover- 
nor. Perhaps he opened them even wider than ever 
upon learning that, as the result of his own defection, 
Deborah Read had married a worthless potter, from 
whom she soon separated for the very good reason 
that he was accused of bigamy. Having seen these 
things and perceived that his friend Keirner was ap- 
parently on the high road to prosperity, Ben set 
himself hard to work in the store which Mr. Den- 
ham now opened in Water Street. To become a 
thrifty merchant was the palpable destiny of the 
clerk. But there were to be many surprises in his 
career, many changes of plan, and one of them now 
occurred. Denham and Franklin were both taken 
ill, the former dying and the latter slowly recover- 
ing, somewhat to his own disappointment, if we are 
to believe him. " I suffered a good deal [he had 
pleurisy], gave up the point in my own mind, and 
was rather disappointed when I found myself re- 
covering, regretting, in some degree, that I might 
now, some time or other, have all that disagreeable 
work to do over again." One fact stared coldly 
into his bright, serene face. The taking away of 
Denham left his assistant, like Othello, with occupa- 



32 Benjamin Franklin [1727 

tion gone, and with all those prospects of future 
wealth vanished into air. What should he do ? 
There was hardly time to ask the question, for 
Keimer came forward with a proposition that the 
management of his new printing-shop should be 
taken by his former employe. Call it a piece of rare 
luck, if you will, but reflect that the offer was made 
to one who by his business sense and his skill as a 
printer well deserved it. 

Here we have Franklin at twenty-one. He has 
travelled not a little; thought, much, read much, 
written much, worked incessantly, sinned too, and 
so stands forth a puzzling figure. Mixed in with 
shining gold is a vein of baser metal. Is the gold 
to triumph ? There is hope that it may, for deep 
in the ..printer's soul are energy of character and 
strength of purpose. These are virtues which he 
has in common with so many natives of distant New 
England, and they must have an important influence 
upon him. The Puritan spirit of self-reliance must 
make itself felt in him, just as in years to come it 
will put so deep an impress upon the patriotism of 
the Revolution. 




CHAPTER II 



AN EDITOR OF THE OLD SCHOOL 




1 728-1 740 

HOSE cordial relations which some 
times exist between master and man, 
even outside of Utopia, had no place 
in the connection now established be- 
tween the half-knavish Keimer and 
the observant Franklin. Keimer wished to have 
his crude printers whipped into shape, as it were, by 
the new foreman, whom he then intended to dis- 
miss, and the latter was shrewd enough to fathom 
the whole plot. The days wore on, Franklin working 
philosophically and efficiently, and the little drama 
began to de^/elop just as was expected. Keimer 
hinted that a reduction of Franklin's wages would be 
in order, " grew by degrees less civil, put on more 
of the master, frequently found fault, was captious, 
and seemed ready for an outbreaking." The crisis 
came soon enough. 

There was a great noise in the street one day, and 
Franklin put his head out of a window of the print- 
ing-office to find out the cause of the outcry, when, 
3 33 



34 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

presto! Keimer called up to him, in angry tones, to 
** mind his business." This may have been enter- 
taining for the listening neighbours, but it proved 
exasperating to the rebuked printer, particularly as 
Keimer came up into the room, and continued the 
quarrel. 

"High words passed on both sides; he gave me the quarter's 
warning we had stipulated, expressing a wish that he had not been 
obliged to so long a warning. I told him his wish was unnecessary, 
for I would leave him that instant ; and so, taking my hat, walked 
out of doors, desiring Meredith, whom I saw below, to take care of 
some things I left, and bring them to my lodgings." 

It was a row with a capital R, and we can picture 
the stupid apprentices looking on open-mouthed 
while Ben bounced out of the place with disgust on 
his face and anger in his usually placid heart. Our 
sympathies irresistibly go with him. Yet this was 
the man who would come to have such a fine control 
over his temper that he could stand unmoved while 
an English enemy loaded him with insults. 

The Meredith spoken of was one of Keimer's 
journeymen, between whom and his foreman a con- 
siderable intimacy existed. He was a nice, honest 
fellow, but trifled too much with the flowing bowl. 
On the evening succeeding the " outbreaking" he 
went to see his friend at the latter's lodgings, and 
it was well he did. By this time the indignant 
Franklin had made up his mind to return to Bos- 
ton, where, for aught we know, he might have 
degenerated into a commonplace soap-boiler, and 
so, practically, buried himself. Meredith suggested 
that when the spring (of 1728) came, and his own 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 35 

time with Keimer had expired, he would form a 
partnership with FrankHn, into which the New 
Englander was to bring the skill, and Meredith's 
father the money needed for presses and types. 
The offer was accepted ; the elder Meredith ap- 
proved of the scheme, hoping above all things 
that his son would be kept too busy to think of his 
cups. It was agreed that Franklin should try to 
continue in other employment until the release of 
his partner. That employment, strange to tell, was 
obtained with Keimer, who was anxious to have the 
assistance of his former manager in the printing of 
an issue of paper money for the province of New 
Jersey. Forthwith, Franklin journeyed to Burling- 
ton, where he contrived a copper-plate press for the 
execution of the bills. He was made much of by 
some of the townspeople, who liked his conversa- 
tion, and he was not grieved, possibly, because 
Keimer met with a less cordial reception. " In 
truth," he writes complacently, ** he was an odd 
fish, ignorant of common life, fond of rudely oppos- 
ing received opinions, slovenly to extreme dirtiness, 
enthusiastic in some points of religion, and a little 
knavish withal." The Keimer type is not yet ex- 
tinguished. 

When the spring arrived, the firm of Franklin and 
Meredith began life, not in an elegantly appointed 
structure such as we would look for to-day, but in a 
little house on Market Street, in which, to lessen 
the rental of twenty-four pounds a year, a glazier 
named Thomas Godfrey and his family were given 
room. It was a risky experiment^ this starting of a 



36 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

printing-house when there were two rivals in the 
field (Keimer and Bradford). The wise merchants 
who used to assemble at the " Every Night Club " 
predicted its failure. All of them did, at least, ex- 
cepting a camiy Scotchman who spoke up one 
evening in defence of the new firm. " For the in- 
dustry of that Franklin," said he, " is superior to 
anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at 
work when I go home from club, and he is at work 
again before his neighbours are out of bed." 

Soon there was business for the firm, despite the 
croaking. Meredith worked in a miserable, half- 
sober way (the Autobiography deals neither so gently 
or charitably as we could wish with his imperfec- 
tions), and Franklin naturally proved the better 
partner. A hard life he must have led, but he 
always loved work, and by way of recreation, he 
could look forward to those intellectual Friday even- 
ings devoted to the " Junto." This Junto was the 
most cherished offspring of Ben's mental activity, 
and may be considered as the forerunner of the 
American Philosophical Society. It was a debating 
club wherein morals, politics, and natural philosophy 
were discussed with the earnestness and dignity that 
one might have expected from the Senators of an- 
cient Rome. To join this imposing club the would- 
be member had to answer, with his hand upon his 
breast, the following formidable questions: 

" Have you any particular disrespect to any present member? 
Answer : I have not. 

" Do you sincerely declare that you love mankind in general, of 
what profession or religion soever? Anszver : I do. 



1740] An Editor of the Old School zi 

" Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, name, 
or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or his external way of wor- 
ship? Answer: No. 

" Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavour impar- 
tially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others ? 
Ansiver : Yes." 

The man who could answer such questions in such 
a way, and do it without an atom of perjury, must 
have been a paragon of liberal-mindedness. Yet 
there was a quiet toleration among Philadelphians 
that made the carrying out of this gentle creed less 
impossible than it might at first seem. It was an 
indirect illustration of the Quaker spirit of non- 
resistance. Franklin, while neither a Friend nor a 
follower of the non-combative theory, sympathised 
with the Quaker's policy, ** to live and let live." 
He had no love for inquisitorial delving into the 
spiritual beliefs of his neighbours. His own belief, 
be it noted, has now changed from a species of 
atheism to a reverence for a Supreme Being. He 
was a Deist with a liturgy of his own making. 

At this time, although Franklin was amusing him- 
self with the abstract discussions of the Junto, he 
was also revolving in his mind a journalistic scheme. 
Pennsylvania had but one newspaper, a stupid sheet 
published in Philadelphia by the rival Bradford. 
Why should not the firm of Franklin and Meredith 
start one of their own ? The idea was a good one, 
and Ben was foolish enough to mention it to a 
friend, who in turn immediately spoke of it to 
Keimer. The latter thought so well of the plan 
that he appropriated it, and soon issued (December, 



38 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

1728) the first number of the pompously titled Uni- 
versal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and Penn- 
sylvania Gazette. Exacting critics who occasionally 
complain that the modern newspaper has too much 
current comment and too little solid information, 
might find the type of literature they desire in the In- 
structor, as published during Keimer's regime, for 
this wide-awake sheet contained, as a sort of alpha- 
betical series, instalments of a standard " Dictionary 
of the Arts and Sciences." The learning was doled 
out in mechanical fashion, but there it was, never- 
theless. 

Franklin waxed wroth on the appearance of the 
Instructor, but did not lose his levelness of head. 
How was he to conduct a warfare against the paper ? 
By bolstering up its wearisome rival, Bradford's Mer- 
cury. So for this purpose he wrote for the latter a 
series of sprightly essays — " The Busybody," they 
were dubbed — wherein a few faults and vanities of the 
time were touched upon in a vein not unworthy of 
Addison. What more pleasantly suggestive of the 
satiric humour of the Spectator than the announce- 
ment of the first essay, wherein the " Busybody " 
predicts that he may displease a great number of the 
readers, " who will not very well like to pay ten shill- 
ings a year for being told of their faults. " . . . But, 
he goes on to say, ** as most people delight in cen- 
sure when they themselves are not the object of it, 
if any are offended at my publicly exposing their 
private vices, I promise they shall have the satisfac- 
tion, in a very little time, of seeing their good friends 
and neighbours in the same circumstances." 



I740J An Editor of the Old School 39 

The " Busybody " made what would now be 
graphically styled a sensation. It contributed to 
the local reputation of the writer and involved him in 
a controversy with Keimer. Keimer lost his temper ; 
the rival remained tranquil. Next Franklin handed 
over the writing of the ** Busybody " to a friend, 
and plunged into the somewhat different field of 
work provided by the money question, then playing 
an important part in Pennsylvania. Coin was 
scarce in the province, there was among the poorer 
classes a cry for a new issue of paper currency, and 
yet the English Government was resolved to nega- 
tive any acts which might be passed by the Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly to supply the want. Just when 
the controversy was at its height (the proposed issue 
being opposed as fiercely in some quarters as it was 
favoured in others), Franklin jumped into the breach 
by writing a pamphlet entitled A Modest Enquiry 
into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Curreney. 
It was a strenuous plea for paper; it contained argu- 
ments which read to-day like wild financial heresies ; 
it carried victory into the camp of the inflationists. 
Despite the warnings of the English Lords of Trade, 
thirty thousand pounds worth of new paper money 
was issued. The writer of the Modest Enquiry got 
the contract for printing it ! To the victor belonged 
the spoils. Possibly in this instance the victor made 
a better showing as a printer than as a political 
economist. 

Now began Franklin's editorial career. Keimer 
was financially ruined, as his former employe had 
foreseen, by his poorness of character and want of 



40 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

business capacity. He was very glad to sell his 
Instructor y with its ninety subscribers, to the hated 
house of Franklin and Meredith. This he did in the 
autumn of 1729. Then he was compelled to go off 
to Barbadoes, after having had the misfortune, as he 
expressed it, " to be three times ruined as a master 
printer, to be nine times in prison " (once was six 
years together), " and often reduced to the most 
wretched circumstances," besides being " hunted as 
a partridge upon the mountains." He was, how- 
ever, a partridge who had plucked himself. No 
sooner did he dispose of the paper than Franklin 
dropped its awkward title, using the simple name of 
Pennsylvania Gazette, and dropping, too, the ridicu- 
lous extracts from the dictionary on arts and sciences. 
He made many welcome changes in the literary and 
typographical features."^ He issued, with his initial 
number, a lengthy announcement or prospectus, in 
which, among other things, he sought timely con- 
tributions from the readers. ** We ask assistance," 
he writes, " because we are fully sensible, that to 
publish a good newspaper is not so easy an under- 
taking as many people imagine it to be." He 
practically confesses that he is not the ideal editor, 
for he points out (perhaps humourously) that '* the 
author of a gazette (in the opinion of the learned) 
ought to be qualified with an extensive acquaintance 
with languages, a great easiness and command of 
writing and relating things clearly and intelligibly, 
and" in few words; he should be able to speak of 

* The first number of the Gazette, under the ownership of Franklin 
and Meredith, appeared October 2, 1729. 



M. T.CICERO'S 

CATO MAJOR, 

OR HIS 

DISCOURSE 

OLD-AGE: 

With Explanatory NOTES. 



■t ^ t-^< yaw- 



PHILADELPHIA t 

Printed and Sold by B. FRANKLIN, 
MDCCXLIV. 

TITLE-PAGE OF CICERO'S " CATO MAJOR." 

(one op FRANKLIN'S EARLIER PUBLICATIONS.) 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 41 

war, both by land and sea; be well acquainted with 
geography, with the history of the time, with the 
several interests of princes and States, the secrets of 
Courts, and the manners and customs of all nations." 
He admits gravely that " men thus accomplished 
are very rare in this remote part of the world." 

To glance over the yellow, clearly printed leaves 
of the Gazette, as carefully preserved in the Gilpin 
Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is 
to find an occupation as delightful to the layman as 
to the antiquarian. Franklin's first number (No. 
40) is in itself a mine of interest, from the prospec- 
tus on the first to the advertisements on the fourth 
page. The " Foreign Affairs," on the second page, 
also arrest amused attention from the fact that some 
of the news is dated as far back as April (1729), 
although the number was published in October of 
the same year. Pass on to the later issues of the 
Gazette, and it is seen that the advertisements (the 
editor was keenly aware of their commercial value) 
gain in importance and quaintness. Here, for in- 
stance, we have : 

" A servant man's Time to be disposed of for Three Years and 
Four months ; he is by trade a Currier, and a perfect master of all 
the Branches of that Business. Enquire at the new Printing office 
near the Market." 

Or classics like these : 

" French is Taught at Mr. Cunningham's, a Barber, next Door to 
Mrs. Rogers in Market Street, by Daniel Duborn." 

"A Likely Negro Woman to be sold : She can Wash and Iron 
very well, and do House-work," 



42 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

" There is now in the Press, and will speedily be Published, The 
Lady Errant Inchanted : A Poem Dedicated to Her most Serene 
Highness the Princess Magallia. 

" . . . Gorgons hiss, and Dragons glare, 
And ten horn'd Fiends and Giants rush to War ; 
Hell rises, Heaven descends, and dance on Earth, 
Gods, Imps and Masters, Musick, Rage and Mirth ; 
A Fire, a Jig, a Battle and a Ball." 

As we read on, Franklin himself, who has started 
a little shop to swell the profits of his establishment, 
looms up as an advertiser. 

"Good Writing Parchment sold by the Printer hereof, very 
reasonable," 

is one of his announcements, and there are adver- 
tisements of ink, quills, and other commodities, such 
as 

" Good Live Geese Feathers, sold at the Printer's hereof." 

It might be supposed that the mechanical cares 
connected with the paper, and the publication of 
books, pamphlets, etc., joined to the carrying on of 
his store, would leave the editor little time for much 
original contribution. Yet such was his mental ac- 
tivity that he was able to pen many an article, both 
serious and light of vein, wherewith to hold the in- 
terest of the town and gain new subscribers. One 
of his favourite methods of enlivening the columns 
was to publish letters from imaginary correspondents, 
whose remarks were far better, as a rule, than any- 
thing which could have been supplied by his readers. 
If the public would not accept the epistolary invita- 
tion held out in the prospectus he would himself 



i74o] An Editor of the Old School 43 

meet the deficiency. The ground which he covered 
in this way had a wide scope, and ranged from the 
discussion of abstruse questions of ethics to merry 
quips and — on one occasion — a very adroit dig at 
the slowness of his rival, the Mercury, in securing 
news. Certainly, if the Mercury was slower than 
the Gazette in that respect, the circumstance de- 
manded satirical mention. Franklin, however, was 
too polite to ridicule Bradford's paper as if with 
intention. No ; he wrote a letter to himself and 
published it as follows:* 

' ' To the Printer of the Gazette : 

" As you sometimes take upon you to correct the Publick [Frank- 
lin knew how to play the Public Censor to good purpose], you ought 
in your Turn patiently to receive publick Correction. My Quarrel 
against you is your Practice of publishing under the Notion of News, 
old Transactions which I suppose you hope we have forgot. For in- 
stance, in your Numb. 66g you tell us from London of July 20. 
That the Losses of our Merchants are laid before the Congress of 
Soissons, by Mr. Stanhope &c. and that Admiral Hopson died the 
8th of May last. \Vhereas 't is certain there has been no Congress at 
Soissons nor anywhere else these three Years at least, nor could Ad- 
miral Hopson possibly die in May last, unless he has made a Resur- 
rection since his death in 1728. And in your Numb. 670 among 
other articles of equal Antiquity you tell us a long story of a Murder 
and Robbery perpetrated on the Person of Mr. Nath. Bostock, which 
I have read word for word not less than four years since in your own 
Paper. Are these your freshest Advices foreign and domestick? I 
insist that you insert this in your next, and let us see how you justify 
yourself. " Memory." 

It seemed from the above plaint that the Gazette, 
rather than the Mercury, was at fault. Read the 

* The Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 206, dated November 2 to 9, 
1732. 



44 Benjamin Franklin [^728- 

answer of the editor, printed directly under the 
communication : 

"I need not say more in Vindication of myself against this 
Charge, than that the Letter is evidently wrong directed, and should 
have been To the Publisher of the Mercury : Inasmuch as the Num- 
ber of my Paper is not yet amounted to 669, nor are those old Arti- 
cles anywhere to be found in the Gazette^ but in the Mercury of the 
two last weeks. I may however say something in his Excuse, viz. : 
That 'tis not to be always expected there should happen just a full 
Sheet of New Occurrences for each week ; and that the oftener you 
are told a good thing the more likely you will be to remember it. I 
confess I once lately offended in this kind myself, but it was thro' 
Ignorance ; and that may possibly be the case with others." 

Whereat, no doubt, Mr. Bradford winced. The 
fling at his shortcomings, taken, as it was, in this 
quietly humorous way, was far more telling than 
would have been a whole page of invective. 

If the Gazette was destined to make its weight felt 
in Philadelphia and throughout the province, even 
greater was the influence to be wielded by the 
almanac which Franklin began publishing about the 
time that he inserted " Memory's " communication. 
Poor Richard, with its proverbs, its verse, and the 
observations of Mr. Richard Saunders — otherwise 
Franklin — leaped at once into popularity, and was 
thereafter bought, quoted, and admired for many 
years. It was in Poor Richard, indeed, that we see 
Franklin in his most striking light as a philosopher 
of the people — a hard-headed, practical thinker, an 
epigrammatic moralist, and an exploiter or adapter 
of adages, almost any one of which might have made 
him famous. For Mr. Saunders had a terse way of 
telling plain truths, and while his sayings were not, 



i74oj An Editor of the Old School 45 

for the most part, exactly original, nearly every one 
of them, even when a more modern setting to an 
ancient saw, bore the hall-mark of Franklin's genius 
for apt expression. Though the gifted Saunders has 
long since gone the way of all flesh, one still recalls 
such proverbs as : 

" Necessity never made a good bargain." 

" Diligence is the mother of good luck." 

" An old young man will be a young old man." 

" God heals, the doctor takes the fee." 

" To bear other people's afflictions everyone has courage enough 
and to spare." 

" Happy that nation, fortunate that age whose history is not 
diverting." 

" Wealth is not his that has it, but bis that enjoys it." 

" Fish and visitors smell in three days." 

" Forewarned, forearmed." 

" Here comes the orator with his flood of words and his drop of 
reason." 

" Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee." 

" Deny self for self's sake." 

" Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." 

" There is no little enemy." 

" Love well, whip well." 

'* Good wives and good plantations are made by good husbands." 

"There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and 
ready money." 

>* " He that would have a short Lent, let him borrow money to be 
repaid at Easter." 
" " Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterward." 

" Let thy discontents be thy secrets." 

" Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no ambition 
corrupt thee, no example sway thee, no persuasion move thee to do 
anything which thou knowest to be evil ; so shalt thou always live 
jollily, for a good conscience is a continual Christmas." 

These and many other proverbs became household 
property, and the fame of Poor Richard, which grew 



46 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

with the years, was to penetrate more than one 
European country as a result of that remarkable 
preface which Franklin wrote for the issue of 1758. 
" The Way to Wealth " was the name of the paper, 
and it sought to prove that, with the exercise of 
more economy, the inhabitants of the colonies could 
easily pay the large taxes imposed upon them as a 
result of the French war. 

Mr. Saunders set forth his ideas of frugality by 
relating the supposed harangue of '' Father Abra- 
ham," an old man who pointed the moral of his 
remarks by numerous quotations iv om. Poor Richard y 
as, for instance : 

"It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people 
one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service, but idle- 
ness taxes many of us much more ; sloth by bringing on diseases, ab- 
solutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour 
wears, while the used key is ahvays bright, as poor Richard says. 
But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is the 
stuff life is made of , as Poor Richard says. How much more time 
than is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that The sleeping 
fox catches no poultry, and that There will be sleeping enough in the 
grave, as Poor Richard says." 

Of course sentiments inculcating submission to tax- 
ation were received with great favour in Europe, and 
the speech of " Father Abraham " was translated 
into several languages. And yet, the creator of 
" Father Abraham " was the man who would secure 
the repeal of the Stamp Act imposed upon the Amer- 
ican colonies by the mother country. 

But we are running on too fast. Let us return to 
the time when the Gazette was first being issued by 



i74o] An Editor of the Old School 47 

Messieurs Franklin and Meredith. Business com- 
plications arose, and, as luck would have it, Mr. 
Vernon, whose money Franklin had long since made 
over to the now vanished Collins, asked for what 
was due him. " I wrote him an ingenuous letter of 
acknowledgment," related the offender, '* craved his 
forbearance a little longer, which he allowed me, 
and as soon as I was able, I paid the principal with 
interest, and many thanks; so that erratum was in 
some degree corrected." 

But there was a more pressing difficulty. The 
father of Meredith, who should have been the capi- 
talist of the new printing concern, was unable to 
advance more than one hundred pounds currency. 
Another hundred pounds was needed to pay a mer- 
chant ; it was not forthcoming. The prospect of a 
lawsuit, in consequence, confronted the partners, 
and ruin stared them ominously in the face. 

" In this distress two true friends, whose kindness I have never 
forgotten, nor ever shall forget while I can remember anything, came 
to me separately, unknown to each other, and without any applica- 
tion from me, offering each of them to advance me all the money 
that should be necessary to enable me to take the whole business 
upon myself, if that should be practicable ; but they did not like my 
continuing the partnership with Meredith, who, as they said, was 
often seen drunk in the streets, and playing at low games in ale- 
houses, much to our discredit," 

The two friends were William Coleman and Robert 
Grace, and Franklin told them, rightly enough, that 
he could not propose a separation while any prospect 
remained of the Merediths filling their part of the 
agreement. If this prospect was not realised, then 



4^ Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

he should think himself at Hberty to accept the 
proffered generosity. 

The bibulous partner soon solved any doubts on 
the subject by acknowledging that his father was 
unable to advance more money. 

" I see," said the son to Franklin, " this is a business I am not fit 
for. I was bred a farmer, and it was folly in me to come to town, 
and put myself, at thirty years of age, an apprentice to learn a new 
trade. Many of our Welsh people are going to settle in North Caro- 
lina where land is cheap. I am inclined to go with them and follow 
my old employment. You may find friends to assist you. If you 
will take the debts of the company upon you ; return to my father 
the hundred pounds he has advanced ; pay my little personal debts, 
and give me thirty pounds and a new saddle, I will relinquish the 
partnership, and leave the whole in your hands." 

Franklin must have been greatly pleased at this 
amicable proposition. He consented to it at once, 
borrowed the necessary funds from the two friends, 
and saw Meredith depart for North Carolina. 

Life now went on more calmly, and Franklin 
began to make enough profits by his printing enter- 
prises to provide for the gradual payment of his debt 
to the beneficent Messrs. Coleman and Grace. He 
wisely reasoned that it was quite as necessary, in 
staid, industry-loving Philadelphia, to appear to be 
a worker as it was to be one, and for the purpose of 
giving such an impression he sometimes indulged in 
the spectacular occupation of wheeling a barrow 
through the streets. Call this exhibition, if you 
will, a bit of affectation, but remember that the 
editor of the Gazette had his way to carve in the 
world, and do not blame him if he resorted to a 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 49 

little innocent diplomacy. He was glad, no doubt, 
that Bradford, the one rival he had to face, was 
grown rich enough to be careless in his business, 
and sorry, too, that the latter happened to be post- 
master. For, under the primitive rules of the colony, 
the postmaster could forbid the circulation through 
his mails of any paper but his own — a privilege of 
which the publisher of the Mercury availed himself. 
So it was only by feeing the post-riders that it was 
possible to deliver the Gazette to its subscribers. 
There was nothing of the petty tyrant about Frank- 
lin, and when it should come his turn to be post- 
master of the town, he would seek to put an end to 
so absurd a monopoly. 

At this period the glazier Godfrey and his family 
still occupied a portion of the printing-house in 
which the bachelor publisher lived and worked, and 
the latter was soon in the meshes of a love-affair. 
It was one without much romance, for Franklin took 
too practical a view of matrimony to be classed as a 
Romeo. Runaway matches, or fervent poems to his 
mistress's evebrow were not for one who had been 
brought up in the hard school of adversity. There- 
fore, when Mrs. Godfrey sought to arrange a mar- 
riage between him and a young relative of hers, 
Franklin let it be known that he would expect with 
the girl a dowry sufificient to pay off the indebted- 
ness remaining on the printing establishment — say 
about a hundred pounds. The parents of the young 
woman asserted that they had not enough money to 
do anything of the kind. The swain immediately 
suggested that they might mortgage their house — 



So Benjamin Franklin [172S- 

an advice which met with so Uttle favour that they 
soon withdrew their consent to this very cold- 
blooded courtship, on the ground that Franklin's 
prospects were too uncertain. The lover (?) sus- 
pected that the old people were ready to wink at an 
elopement, thus leaving them under no obligation 
in the way of dowry, but he chose to take them at 
their word, and so made no move to see the 
daughter. 

The affair has about it so little of the ardour and 
disinterestedness of youth, that it is pleasant to turn 
from it to a scene where real affection shines out 
agreeably, if placidly. Deborah Read, otherwise 
Mrs. Rogers, was the heroine of the episode. She 
had left her husband upon learning that he was 
credited, or discredited, with having another wife. 
Rogers then ran away to the West Indies, whence 
came later the report of his death, and so ended an 
ill-starred marriage. But the truant Franklin was 
about to return to his first allegiance; one of his 
errata was to be corrected. Let him tell the story 
himself: 

" A friendly correspondence as neighbours and old acquaintances 
had continued between me and Mrs. Read's family, who all had a 
regard for me from the time of my first lodging in their house. I 
was often invited there and consulted in their affairs wherein I was 
sometimes of service. I pitied poor Miss Read's unfortunate situa- 
tion, who was generally dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided com- 
pany. I considered my giddiness and inconsistency when in London 
as in a great degree the cause of herunhappiness, tho' the mother was 
good enough to think the fault more her own than mine, as she had 
prevented our marrying before I went thither, and persuaded the 
other match in my absence. Our mutual affection was revived, but 



1740] An Editor of the Old School 51 

there were now great objections to our union. The match was in- 
deed, looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife being said to be living 
in England ; but this could not easily be proved, because of the dis- 
tance ; and tho' there was a report of his [Rogers's] death, it was not 
certain. Then, tho' it should be true, he had left many debts, which 
his successor might be called upon to pay. We ventured, however, 
over all these difficulties, and I took her to wife, September ist, 
1730. None of the inconveniences happened that we had appre- 
hended ; she proved a good and faithful helpmate, assisted me much 
by attending the shop ; we throve together, and have ever mutually 
endeavoured to make each other happy." 

Here, then, is the account of the marriage in 
Franklin's own words, and it is far better to take it 
exactly as it stands than to wander off into a discus- 
sion as to the validity of the union. The evidence 
in the matter is circumstantial, rather than direct, 
but it leads to the conclusion that the ceremony was 
legal. It was a happy marriage, as all the world 
knows; it gave to Franklin just that moral poise of 
which he stood in need, and made of him a good, 
if not exactly an ardent husband. In years to come 
he would write tenderly of his wife : 

" . . . we are grown old together, and if she has any faults I 
am so used to them that I don't perceive them. As the song says : 
'* ' Some faults we have all, and so has my Joan, 
But then they 're exceedingly small ; 
And, now I 'm grown used to them, so like my own, 

I scarcely can see them at all, 
My dear friends, 

I scarcely can see them at all.' " * 

The Joan of Franklin's muse seems to have pos- 
sessed just that practical, domestic vein so essential 

* Franklin was quoting from My Plain Country Joan^ a song 
written by him for the Junto, 



52 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

in one who was to be his helpmeet. FrankHn with 
an extravagant wife would have been an anomaly. 
As he himself puts it : 

' ' We have an English proverb that says, ' He that zvould thrive, 
must ask his wife.' It w^as lucky for me that I had one as much dis- 
posed to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me cheer- 
fully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, tending shop, 
purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, etc., etc. We kept 
no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, our furniture of the 
cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was a long time bread and 
milk (no tea) and I ate it out of a two-penny earthen porringer, with 
a pewter spoon." 

Domestic economy was not, however, the only 
virtue which interested the fertile brain of Frank- 
lin ; he also sought to practise what might be termed 
moral economy. In other words, he conceived ** the 
bold and arduous project of arriving at moral per- 
fection." The idea was " bold and arduous," with- 
out doubt, and it need hardly be added that there 
was nothing of the angel about the man. Although 
in many of his attributes he was far beyond the 
average of humanity, yet he sometimes slipped and 
fell in pursuing the right. Still he thought much on 
the subject, and drew up a set of commandments 
which helped to establish in him that wonderful 
self-control which, during the troubles of the Revo- 
lutionary period, was to be exercised so effectively. 
Thirteen virtues were comprised in the list, and they 
were duly recorded in a little book where the author's 
practice or neglect of each might be registered in 
black and white. Even in matters of the soul was 
Franklin methodical. Originally there were only 
twelve virtues in the book, but that of Humility 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 53 

was added when a plain-spoken Quaker informed 
the striver after perfection that he was generally 
thought proud, and in argument overbearing, and 
rather insolent. 

It was about this time (1733) that Franklin made 
a trip to Boston, and visited his gratified relations. 
On his return he stopped at Newport, where James 
Franklin was now living; with him he had a cordial 
meeting. It is to be supposed that Benjamin the 
man behaved with more tact than Benjamin the boy 
had done at the last interview. Later he was to 
show his magnanimity by educating his brother's 
son, then a lad of ten years of age. Benjamin him- 
self already had a family. One of his sons, Francis 
Folger Franklin, was to die, several years later, of 
small-pox — a victim to the father's prejudice against 
inoculation. 

Thus the editor went on aggressively with the 
problem of life, taking an interest in every phase of 
it, printing, studying languages, writing down vir- 
tues to be practised, and now and then getting into 
breezy controversies with his fellow-citizens. One 
of these controversies arose through the arrival from 
Ireland of a young Presbyterian minister named 
Hemphill, who created quite a stir by the brilliancy 
of his preaching. Among his numerous admirers 
was soon numbered Franklin. In the sermons of 
the newcomer he found little of the dogmatic style 
so common to the clergymen of the time, but a 
great deal of sound, practical virtue. The uncon- 
ventional methods of Hemphill stirred up, however, 
a violent opposition among his more conservative 



54 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

listeners ; he was accused of heterodoxy, and the 
excitement among the usually quiet inhabitants of 
Philadelphia grew intense. Franklin flew valiantly 
to the rescue, raised a strong party in his interest, 
and wrote two or three pamphlets in his defence. 
Finding that, tho' an eloquent preacher, he was 
but a poor writer, I lent him my pen," says our 
Autobiographer, who might have suspected, even 
then, that there was something curious in the liter- 
ary deficiency of a clergyman who could deliver such 
well-considered discourses. Knowing as we do the 
sturdy spirit of Franklin, it is easy to imagine that 
the contest would have resulted in victory for his 
protege had it not been for '* an unlucky occur- 
rence " which " hurt his cause exceedingly." In 
short, Mr. Hemphill was an unblushing plagiarist. 
One of his adversaries thought that a sermon which 
the reverend gentleman preached with great effect 
had a familiar ring ; he looked into the matter, and 
was delighted to discover that the glowing words 
he had heard were published in a British review and 
attributed to Dr. James Foster, the London divine. 
This settled the career of the stranger in Philadel- 
phia, but Franklin stood by his theological guns, 
possibly because he was too nettled to draw out of 
a fight which he had taken so much to heart. ** I 
rather approved his giving us good sermons com- 
posed by others, than bad ones of his own manu- 
facture, tho' the latter was the practice of our 
common teachers." And yet in that little moral 
book of his Franklin had placed " Sincerity " among 
the virtues. 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 55 

When, later on, Whitefield came to Philadelphia 
to throw the sombre spell of his religious fervour 
and natural eloquence over many of the inhabitants, 
Franklin listened with keen, critical attention to the 
impassioned words of warning which fell from the 
great preacher's lips. He always tried to keep on 
his guard with the reformer, as though half afraid of 
being carried away by the flood of oratory, and he 
was obdurate enough, when Whitefield returned 
from his trip to Georgia, to refuse contributing to the 
orphan asylum projected by the evangelist. White- 
field wished to place the institution in Georgia, while 
Franklin wanted it built in Philadelphia, contending 
that in a place where material and workmen were 
more plentiful it would be far easier to erect the 
asylum, and to have transported to the banks of the 
Delaware the destitute Southern children whom it 
was intended to shelter. But the " spell-binding" 
genius of the visitor was to conquer, and no one 
would appreciate the humour of the victory more 
than Franklin. 

" I happened soon after," writes the latter, " to attend one of his 
sermons in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with 
a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. 
I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver 
dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, 
and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory 
made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver ; 
and he finished so admirably that I empty'd my pocket wholly into 
the collector's dish, gold and all." 

What a scene to have witnessed ! The self-restraint 
of the imperturbable Franklin gradually melting be- 
fore the inspired pleadings of the enthusiast. 



56 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

The Philadelphia which welcomed Whitefield, and 
wherein Franklin was already assuming so promi- 
nent a position, was a pretty, prosperous town, with 
a growing commerce and a population that before 
many years (in about 1744) would swell to the 
enormous figure of twelve or thirteen thousand 
souls. Pennsylvania was a thriving province, hav- 
ing for its proprietors the sons of William Penn, 
with whose interests the people and their Assembly 
were not always in harmony. Everywhere loyalty 
to the crown of Great Britain prevailed; there was 
real affection for the mother-country in the hearts 
of her American children ; everything seemed to 
point to a continuation of the bonds existing be- 
tween them. Philadelphia herself was well-to-do, 
conservative, a little dull, and fond, even then, of 
good living, and the Quakers still retained an influ- 
ence which would not be impaired until the enemies 
of their non-combative theory, with Franklin at 
their head, should strike a mighty blow. The in- 
tellectual life of the city was not exactly brilliant, 
and conditions were, of necessity, more or less 
primitive, but men of liberal education could be 
found. 

Franklin himself, by the establishment (1731-32) 
of the Philadelphia Library, had done a great deal 
to stir up the mental activity of his townsmen. 
This institution forms to-day one of the most endur- 
ing monuments to his enterprise and sagacity. 
Until then, a public library was undreamt of in the 
philosophy of Philadelphians. Good books were 
hard to obtain unless one went to the trouble of im- 




LU O 

Q E 

< s 

I ° 

CL z 

■T- lU 

J- UJ 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 57 

porting them from England, an expensive and 
tedious method, and one seldom employed. The 
fact was that the majority of the thrifty citizens 
were so much immersed in the carrying on of their 
respective trades that they gave little attention, 
before the organising of the library, to the demands 
of literature. So it remained for Franklin to put the 
right kind of reading within their reach. This he 
did in a way that was almost accidental. 

It appears that the members of the Junto, who 
naturally prided themselves on their knowledge of 
the liberal arts, had each a few books. When they 
gave up a tavern as their place of meeting and 
rented a club-room of their own, the precious vol- 
umes, at Franklin's suggestion, were placed in the 
new quarters, and were borrowed, taken home, and 
read. It was a club-circulating library, and the 
venture proved so admirable a one that its origina- 
tor made up his mind to go further and to start a 
public subscription library. A plan was accordingly 
drawn up, and, after some difficulty, fifty persons, 
the most of them young tradesmen, Vv'ere secured 
for the pledging of forty shillings each for the first 
purchase of books, and ten shillings per year as 
dues."^ Reading was not then fashionable, but it 
soon became so, and from the organisation of the 
Philadelphia Library may be dated that quiet, un- 
ostentatious, but none the less pronounced, love of 
books so characteristic of the Quaker City. Phila- 
delphia never was, and probably never will be, an 

* The Philadelphia Library was incorporated in 1742. The first 
books for the society arrived from London in October, 1732. 



58 Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

intellectual centre of the Boston type, but it has 
been for many years a community where the average 
of general information stands high. 

What particularly impresses one at this point is 
the catholicity, the many-sided nature, of the editor 
of the Pennsylvania Gazette. He publishes a paper, 
and the founding of a library seems, therefore, a 
congenial task, but when he rushes — or rather walks 
sedately — into a far different line of philanthropy 
and organises a fire company, we hold up our hands 
in surprise. Yet that was what he did in 1736, after 
having become impressed with the wretchedly in- 
adequate provision for extinguishing fires. He was 
determined to have for Philadelphia a regular fire 
company, on the model of one in Boston, and suc- 
ceeded so well in his scheme that other organisations 
of the same kind were not long in being equipped. 
Many a time must he have run to a fire with his 
leather buckets, forgetting his business and his 
books, and working as hard as though he were never 
to become a Signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence or the petted envoy to France. He will con- 
gratulate himself when he comes to write the sketch 
of his life that since the rise of fire companies Phila- 
delphia *' has never lost by fire more than one or 
two houses at a time," and that ** the flames have 
often been extinguished before the house in which 
they began Jias been Jialf consumed.'' What must 
the fires have resulted in before that fortunate era?* 



* Another service for which Franklin put Philadelphia in his debt 
was in suggesting a plan for the reorganisation of the " city watch." 



i74o] An Editor of the Old School 59 

We have not yet traced very far the eventful 
career of this future hero of the nation, but he has 
already displayed phases of character and of mental 
power that stamp him indelibly as one man among 
millions. Let us glance for an instant at the differ- 
ent guises in which he is revealed to us. Here is 
the list : 

The Craftsman: He has mastered the intricacies 
of the printer's trade, and there is, perhaps, in all 
the colonies no better compositor than he, and no 
one who can set cleaner " copy," make a more effi- 
cient foreman, or get out a neater book. He can 
work a press, bind books, too, keep a stationery 
store, and could, if circumstances demanded, make 
soap and candles, turn clerk, cast accounts, or do 
engraving. 

The Publisher: He manages a paper, contributes 
to it, and performs the multifarious duties of editor, 
news collector, and head printer. 

The Philosopher : He has a knowledge of mankind, 
a sagacity, and a felicity of expression that place him 
in the same class with Socrates. More than a cen- 
tury after his death Professor Moses Coit Tyler will 
draw the following parallel between the two " : 

" Besides the plebeian origin of both, and some trace of plebeian 
manners which clung to both, and the strain of animal coarseness 
from which neither was ever entirely purified, they both had an 
amazing insight into human nature in all its grades and phases, they 
were both indifferent to literary fame, they were both humourists, 
they both applied their great intellectual gifts in a disciplinary but 



"^Literary History of the American Revolution, vol. ii. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. 



6o Benjamin Franklin [1728- 

genial way to the improvement of their fellow-men, and in dealing 
controversially with the opinions of others they both understood and 
practised the strategy of coolness, playfulness, and unassuming man- 
ner, moderation of statement, the logical parallel, and irony." 

The Prose Writer: He has written striking pam- 
phlets, articles for the newspapers, etc., and a num- 
ber of essays, some of which compare favourably 
with the style of Addison. 

The Versifier: He is not a poet, but he writes in- 
different rhymes. 

The Religious Thinker : He has turned from 
atheism to deism, and has invented for his observ- 
ance a moral code, in which the virtues are temper- 
ance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, 
sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquil- 
lity, chastity, and humility. 

The Political Economist : He has written a defence 
of paper money, and has thereby induced the As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania to defy the orders of the 
English Government. 

The Sinner: In spite of all his fine resolutions he 
has erred like lesser mortals. 

The Philanthropist: He supplies Philadelphians 
with books, and lessens the damage from fire. 

The Diplomat : He has been careful of appearance, 
and has an eye to the main chance. 

The Reformer: He has the courage of his convic- 
tions and can speak out on occasion. 

The Saver of Money: He has been penurious. 

The Giver of Money: He has been generous. 
Vide Collins and Ralph. 

The Forgetful Lover: He has jilted Miss Read. 



I740] An Editor of the Old School 6i 

The Faithful Husband: He has married Miss 
Read. 

The Humourist: He can see the Hghter side of 
things. 

The ReaHst : He takes an austere interest in the 
commonplace affairs of life. 

Here we have a set of characteristics some of 
which might seem strangely at war one with another 
were it not for the nature of him in whom they are 
blended so effectively. The printer who is working 
so energetically with his apprentices in the office of 
the Gazette — that stocky man of medium height, 
with the gray eyes twinkling shrewdness, kindliness, 
and humour — is blessed with a vast power of adapt- 
ability, and the gift of being many things at once. 
Above all, and regulating all, is an ambition to 
succeed. He is solving the problem of existence 
in his own steady, unimpassioned fashion; he will 
soon make rapid strides in its solution. We will 
follow him, and see how the private citizen is al- 
ready developing into the public man. His ways 
may not be always the ways of smoothness, and his 
paths not always those of peace, but there will be 
length of days, and honour, in store for him. 




CHAPTER III 



THE SERVANT OF THE PUBLIC 



1736-1754 




g|EFORE describing the public activities 
of Franklin, which were to continue 
for half a century or more, let the 
reader bear in mind that our hero 
had three qualities destined to prove 



of essential value in the future. He possessed a 
mind in which common sense played a more import- 
ant role than impracticable enthusiasm; he knew 
how to make the best of current circumstances while 
leading up to the accomplishment of great aims; 
egotist though he was, and despite the assertion of 
enemies to the contrary, he loved his country better 
than himself. There have been more brilliant states- 
men who have done far less for American progress, 
simply because they lacked one or all of these vir- 
tues. Some of them have had noble conceptions 
without the worldly wisdom necessary to carry them 
into effect ; some have rebelled at the inevitable, 
degenerating into political scolds ; others have ruined 

62 



1754] The Servant of the Public 63 

themselves by yielding to the mad longing for per- 
sonal power and self-aggrandisement. Failure, often 
even shame, has been the consequence. It is well, 
therefore, to watch the means employed by Frank- 
lin to contribute to the common weal, and to con- 
trast his success with the fall of men either less 
observing, less stable, or less honest than himself. 

His entrance into the arena of public life was 
made modestly enough in the year 1736, as clerk of 
the Pennsylvania Assembly. Indeed, he attached 
little importance to the position beyond the fact that 
it brought him into closer contact with the legisla- 
tors, and secured for him a goodly amount of official 
printing — a business chance which interfered in no 
wise with his duties, and for which, under the cir- 
cumstances then prevailing, we cannot really blame 
him for turning to advantage. The following year 
he was again chosen clerk, notwithstanding the op- 
position of one member of the Assembly who 
favoured a candidate of his own, and who uncon- 
sciously advertised the abilities of Franklin by de- 
livering a long speech against him. To win over 
this opponent, who might put further obstacles in 
his way, was now the aim of the re-elected officer, 
and it must be admitted that he went about the 
task in a mode that bespoke the wisdom of the ser- 
pent. To defy the Assemblyman would be worse 
than foolish ; to fawn upon him was out of the ques- 
tion, and not suited to the independent character of 
the clerk. Franklin sat down and coolly wrote the 
member, asking the loan of a curious book from his 
library. The gentleman fell into the good-natured 



64 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

trap, doubtless much flattered by the request, sent 
the desired volume, and in a few days the borrower 
returned it with a polite note of thanks. Let us 
hope that he had read the book. One thing is cer- 
tain ; from that moment the claws of the member 
were drawn, and he became an intimate friend of 
his former enemy. A little diplomacy had won the 
day. 

It was now (1737) that Franklin was made post- 
master of Philadelphia by ex-Governor Spotswood 
of Virginia, then Postmaster-General of the colonies. 
An archaic office, although not a sinecure, the post- 
mastership of even a large town must have been. 
The mere announcement of the appointment shows 
that the carrying of the mails had not been elevated 
to the dignity of a fine art. Far from it, for we 
read that ** the post-office of Philadelphia is now kept 
at B. Franklin's, in Market street; and that Henry 
Pratt is appointed Riding Postmaster for all the 
stages between Philadelphia and Newport in Vir- 
ginia, who sets out about the beginning of each 
month, and returns in twenty-four days; by whom 
gentlemen, merchants, and others may have their 
letters carefully conveyed, and business faithfully 
transacted," etc. 

Such regular distribution of mails as there hap- 
pened to be throughout the colonies was attended 
to by carriers on horseback, and even that system 
was poor enough. No one had a keener idea of its 
inadequacy than Franklin, and a time was to come 
when he would be able to build the foundation for 
that admirable service which is to-day one of the 



1754] The Servant of the PubHc 65 

most creditable departments of the national govern- 
ment. 

In 1737 the salary attached to the postmastership 
was insignificant, even for that era of frugal stipends, 
but the office was of advantage to Franklin in that it 
gave him greater facilities for the publishing of the 
Gazette, and imparted to the paper, as it were, an 
official status that won for it larger circulation and 
more advertising patronage. In one way, it is 
pleasant to remember, Franklin refused to imitate 
Bradford, his predecessor in office — he did not forbid 
(excepting once at the peremptory orders of Spots- 
wood) the post-riders from carrying the opposition 
journal, the Mercury. This generosity was good 
policy, too; the Gazette thrived wonderfully, and 
Franklin, who had begun to be a capitalist on a 
small scale, and to advance money for the establish- 
ment of several of his workmen in different colonies, 
by this time must have ceased to trundle about that 
ostentatious wheelbarrow. 

For ten useful years the ways of Franklin were 
the ways of peace, and he lived at amity with most 
men, not forgetting the all-powerful Quakers. But 
in 1747 he dealt the Quaker policy of non-resistance 
a blow from which it never fully recovered ; he was 
thus able to influence the trend of public opinion 
and to infuse into many a Philadelphian a war- 
like spirit which was to bear striking fruit on the 
threshold of the Revolution. The warring of France 
and Spain against Great Britain was the cause of 
this local earthquake, and a rather indirect cause it 
might seem were we not to remember that it ex- 



66 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

posed the seaboard of the colonies to the descent of 
privateers, with all the cruelty and pillage that such 
expeditions brought in their wake. Massachusetts 
had taken the alarm, and gallantly fitted out an 
expedition against Louisburg; everywhere " De- 
fence " — defence against warfare of the most de- 
spicable type — was the earnest cry. Philadelphia 
was in danger; French and Spanish privateers were 
hovering in Delaware Bay. Yet all was at a stand- 
still. The Pennsylvania Assembly was practically 
in the hands of the Quakers, who refused to supply 
the money necessary to put the province in the nec- 
essary condition of security. To take up arms, or 
actively countenance the taking up of arms, was to 
act in opposition to one of their most cherished 
beliefs. The laws of Pennsylvania, furthermore, 
sedulously respected their scruples. Governor 
Thomas entreated, but as the non-combative theory 
still held the power, he turned his energies to at- 
tacking the Spaniards through Cuba. In short, he 
set about organising several companies of volunteers 
for the conquest of that island, assuring them that 
the Cubans would fly before them, leaving all of 
their possessions as booty for the invaders. 

Now Franklin, who possessed the rare gift of 
knowing when to act and when to remain quiescent, 
determined that the time had come for aggressive 
opposition to the dangerous conservatism or dogma- 
tism of the peace-at-any-price party. None the less 
was he impelled to break up the existing order of 
things because of the boldness of the privateers. 
One of these vessels had not long before appeared 



1754] The Servant of the PubHc 67 

off Cape May, flying the English colours, and when 
a pilot innocently boarded her he was immediately 
made prisoner, his boat was seized and manned by 
a crew composed, in the main, of Spaniards, who 
proceeded up the river, pillaging a plantation, carry- 
ing ofT four negroes, and capturing a ship with a 
valuable cargo on it. It was time to call a halt. 
Franklin called it in a characteristic way, by writ- 
ing a pamphlet which made him many enemies among 
the older Quakers, gained over to his views some of 
the younger members of the sect, and became the 
one topic of conversation in the town. As for the 
party of defence, a numerous and belligerent throng, 
they were jubilant. 

The pamphlet, which shows us Franklin in his 
best form as a patriot of sterling sense, was entitled 
Plain Triithy and had as the ostensible author ** A 
Tradesman of Philadelphia." It is prefaced by a 
quotation from Sallust {Capta urbe, nihil Jit rcliqiii 
victis, etc, ** Should the city be taken, all will be 
lost to the conquered "), and starts off with this 
well-considered paragraph : 

"It is said the wise Italians make this proverbial remark on our 
nation, viz., ' The English feel but they do not see.' That is, they 
are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do not take 
sufficient care to prevent them ; their natural courage makes them 
too little apprehensive of danger, so that they are often surprised by 
it, unprovided of the proper means of security. When it is too late 
they are sensible of their imprudence ; after great fires they provide 
buckets and engines ; after a pestilence they think of keeping clean 
their streets and common sewers ; and when a town has been sacked 
by their enemies they provide for its defence, etc. This kind of 
^fter-wisdom is indeed so common with us as to occasion the vulgar 



68 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

though very significant saying, When the steed is stolen you shut the 
stable door" 

After this prelude, containing philosophy as 
apropos to-day as it was a century and a half ago, 
the writer goes on to expose the dangerous situation 
of the province from Indians and foreign aggressions 
alike, to quote Scripture, and to give very strong 
reasons for the policy of defence. 

" The enemy," he continues, "no doubt have been told that the 
people of Pennsylvania are Quakers, and against all defence from a 
principle of conscience. This, though true of a part, and that a 
small part only, of the inhabitants, is commonly said of the whole, 
and what may make it look probable to strangers is that, in fact, 
nothing is done by any part of the people towards their defence. 
But to refuse defending oneself, or one's country, is so unusual a 
thing among mankind, that possibly they may not believe it till, by 
experience, they find they can come higher and higher up our river, 
seize our vessels, land, and plunder our plantations and villages, and 
retire with their booty unmolested." 

Such pungent, hard-headed reasoning made /V<?/;/ 
Truth the sensation of the year, and elevated the 
author to the pinnacle of a hero among those who 
fervently urged the protection of their firesides. 
The more ultra Quakers might hold up their hands 
in horror at this temerity, but that frightened not 
Franklin. The die was cast, the Rubicon crossed; 
open defiance had been hurled at the laissez-faire 
dogma, and the thing now to do was to act on a hint 
thrown out in the pamphlet. For the " Tradesman 
of Philadelphia " had computed that the province 
contained, exclusive of the peace advocates, sixty 
thousand fighting men, ** acquainted with firearms, 
many of them hunters and marksmen, hardy and 



1754] The Servant of the Public 69 

bold." " All we want," he had added, " is order, 
discipline, and a few cannon." A meeting of citi- 
zens was held for the formation of a defence asso- 
ciation, a plan for which was drawn up under the 
auspices of Franklin; many signatures to it were 
secured, and the movement soon assumed formid- 
able proportions. The provincial Council endorsed 
the association (Governor Thomas had now returned 
to England, and Anthony Palmer, President of 
Council, was acting Governor) ; there were petitions 
to government for a ship of war, cannon, arms, and 
ammunition, and a lottery was devised to obtain 
three thousand pounds for the erection of a battery 
in the Delaware, below the city. Bench and pulpit 
joined in the cry for self-protection. One clergy- 
man preached from the theme, " The Lord is a Man 
of War. " In the early part of December, companies 
of militia were formed, and to Franklin, perhaps the 
coolest man among them through all the excite- 
ment, was offered the colonelcy of the Philadelphia 
regiment. He declined the honour, however, but 
showed his zeal by jogging over to New York with 
several citizens to persuade Governor Clinton to lend 
them some cannon for the battery.^ 

" He at first refused us peremptorily," relates the Autobiography, 
"but at dinner with his council, where there was great drinking of 
Madeira wine, as the custom of that place then was, he softened by 
degrees, and said he would lend us six. After a few more bumpers 
he advanced to ten ; and at length he very good-naturedly conceded 
eighteen." 

* This main battery was erected below the Old Swedes* Church. 
See Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, for some interest- 
ing data on the subject. 



70 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

They were fine pieces of cannon, and were soon 
mounted on the battery, which FrankHn took his 
turn at guarding, like other members of the associa- 
tion, during the progress of the war abroad. 

Governor Palmer and his Council made much of 
the author of Plain Truth, whom they consulted in 
many things concerning the plans of defence. At 
his suggestion they proclaimed a public fast whereby 
to invoke a blessing upon the project. This was an 
innovation for Pennsylvania, and so Franklin put 
his Puritan training to advantage by drawing up the 
proclamation for the fast ** in the accustomed stile " 
of New England. Whether he would be so flattered 
by the Quakers of the Assembly (which had ad- 
journed in October not to meet again until May, 
1748) was quite another question. It was thought 
that he must surely lose his place as clerk to that 
body, and on being advised to resign, as a pleasant 
alternative to having his position ignominiously 
taken from him, he said with emphasis that he 
would " never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an 
office," adding: " If they will have my office of 
clerk to dispose of to another, they shall take it from 
me. I will not, by giving it up, lose my right of 
some time or other making reprisals on my adver- 
saries. " At the next session, strange to say, he 
was unanimously re-elected clerk, possibly, as he 
explains, because ** they did not care to displace me 
on account merely of my zeal for the association." 

Perhaps when the Assembly came together the 
dislike which the more strait-laced Quakers felt for 
Franklin had begun to wear off a trifle. Certainly 



1754] The Servant of the Public 71 

a combative spirit was not without secret adherents 
among the younger members of the Society, whose 
patriotism got the better of their environment. 
FrankUn himself relates an instance of this quiet, 
but none the less pronounced, defection, and the 
story is so graphic that it may best be told in his 
own words : 

" It had been proposed that we [i.e., the members of the fire com- 
pany he had founded] should encourage the scheme for building a 
battery by laying out the present stock, then about sixty pounds, in 
tickets of the lottery. By our rules, no money could be disposed of 
till the next meeting after the proposal. The company consisted of 
thirty members, of which twenty-two were Quakers, and eight only 
of other persuasions. We eight punctually attended the meeting ; 
but, tho' we thought that some of the Quakers would join us, we were 
by no means sure of a majority. Only one Quaker, Mr. James Mor- 
ris, appeared to oppose the measure. He expressed much sorrow 
that it had ever been proposed, as he said Friends w^xo. all against it, 
and it would create such discord as might break up the company. 
We told him that we saw no reason for that ; we were the minority, 
and if Friends were against the measure, and outvoted us, we might 
and should, agreeably to the usage of all societies, submit. When 
the hour for business arrived it was moved to put the vote ; he 
allowed we then might do it by the rules ; but, as he could assure us 
that a number of members intended to be present for the purpose of 
opposing it, it would be but candid to allow a little time for their 
appearing. 

" While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell me two gen- 
tlemen below desired to speak with me. I went down, and found 
they were two of our Quaker members. They told me there were 
eight of them assembled at a tavern just by ; that they were deter- 
mined to come and vote with us if there should be occasion, which 
they hoped would not be the case, and desired we would not call for 
their assistance if we could do without it, as their voting for such a 
measure might embroil them with their elders and friends. Being 
thus secure of a majority, I went up, and after a little seeming hesi- 
tation, agreed to a delay of another hour. This Mr. Morris allowed 



72 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

to be extreamly fair. Not one of his opposing friends appeared, at 
which he expressed great surprise ; and at the expiration of the hour, 
we carry'd the resolution eight to one ; and as, of the twenty-two 
Quakers, eight were ready to vote with us, and thirteen, by their ab- 
sence, manifested that they were not inclined to oppose the measure, 
I afterwards estimated the proportion of Quakers sincerely against 
defence as one to twenty-one only ; for these were all regular mem- 
bers of that Society and in good reputation among them, and had due 
notice of what was proposed at that meeting," 

This was a bit crafty in our hero, but let it be re- 
membered that the strategy went to benefit a good 
cause. And no one felt more keenly than he the 
humours of a situation where a few progressive 
Quakers found it difficult to make a satisfactory 
blending of their loyalty and their non-resistance 
article of faith. For deep down in their hearts was 
a warm love of country which impelled them to 
tacitly sanction measures that they could not openly 
approve. 

During all the excitement following the publica- 
tion of Plain Talk, it was a great satisfaction to 
Franklin to know that James Logan, the one-time 
agent and friend of William Penn, was openly in 
favour of the association for defence. He himself 
had handed to the worthy author of the pamphlet 
the sum of sixty pounds, to be used in the purchase 
of lottery tickets in aid of the battery. Like Frank- 
lin, the cultivated Logan had a humorous idea of 
the paradoxical complications frequently arising 
through belief in the doctrine of non-resistance, and 
he could cite, by way of illustration, an experience 
of his own. When he was coming over to Philadel- 
phia in 1699, as Penn's secretary, the good ship 



1754] The Servant of the Public "jz 

Canterbury y which bore him and his distinguished 
master, met with an armed vessel that was at first 
supposed to be an enemy. The captain determined 
to defend himself, but, knowing the peace policy of 
the Quakers, he advised Penn and his companions 
to retire to the seclusion and safety of the cabin — a 
suggestion adopted by all of the party excepting 
the independent Logan, who remained on deck, 
quartered to a gun. The enemy was no enemy at 
all, but a friendly ship, and when the secretary went 
below to tell the news, Penn rebuked him severely 
and publicly for his martial sentiment. The censure 
stung Logan, who answered, evidently with a good 
deal of non-Quaker-like heat, " I being thy servant, 
why did thee not order me to come down ? But thee 
was willing enough that I should stay and fight the 
ship when thee thought there was danger." We 
can imagine that when Plain Talk wdi?> the one great 
topic of local conversation Logan related the anec- 
dote to Franklin with much relish. 

Meanwhile Mars stalked triumphantly through 
the City of Brotherly Love. Cannon arrived from 
England ; the newly organised companies were re- 
viewed and drilled. It was requested that, in case 
of alarm at night, the citizens in sympathy with 
defence should place lighted candles in the lower 
windows and doors of their houses, *' for the more 
convenient marching of the militia and well-affected 
persons who may join them." Privateering was still 
a dangerous industry, however, and there was gen- 
eral rejoicing when the British sloop-of-war Otter 
came up the Delaware to protect the commerce of 



74 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

the city. But the Otter met with an accident which 
disabled her, and the river offered many terrors to 
arriving or departing merchantmen. On one occa- 
sion Captain Lopez, in command of a Spanish brig- 
antine, sailed boldly up the Delaware, flying the 
English colours, and might have captured a large 
vessel anchored at New Castle, had it not been for 
the escape of one of his prisoners, an American, who 
leaped from the privateer, swam ashore, and put his 
compatriots on their guard. There was firing from 
the New Castle battery, and the threatened ship; 
firing, too, from Captain Lopez, who displayed his 
real colours, and finally sailed gaily down the river 
after promising to return with other craft and plun- 
der and burn to his heart's content. As the enter- 
prising commander expected to include Philadelphia 
in his little trip there was much uneasiness; a new 
company of artillery was formed, and extra precau- 
tions taken. Surely the Assembly might now be 
expected to assist the defenders. But that provok- 
ing body met, did nothing, and adjourned. 

Then a fresh alarm was raised. It was reported 
that seven suspicious vessels, one of them carrying 
thirty guns, were down in the bay, and it was some 
little time before the anxious Philadelphians heard 
that the visitors belonged to the English navy. 
Then came the great news that the war was at an 
end, and that the peace treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
had been signed (1748). 

Philadelphia now settled down to quietude, but 
she was not the Philadelphia of old. Mars had won 
a victory within the very gates of his most fervent 



17541 The Servant of the Public 75 

enemies, and the dogma of impassiveness was, if by 
no means dead, maimed by a wound which would 
never heal. And Frankhn had, first by his pen, and 
then by his acts, done more to bring about this re- 
sult than any other man in the province. What 
wonder was it that the public began to claim him 
more and more, as though he were some willing 
servant from whom any amount of honest, efficient 
work might be expected as a matter of right ? 

Yet Franklin was just comforting himself with the 
thought that he could now find opportunity to pur- 
sue those scientific researches which were destined 
to contribute so generously to his fame. He had 
recently taken into partnership his foreman, David 
Hall, who was to carry on the printing business for 
him ; he was in easy circumstances, and a vista of 
refined leisure opened up before him.* But there 
was to be no leisure in his life. No sooner had he 
determined to be a savant, and nothing but a 
savant, than, as he expresses it, the public " laid 
hold of me for their purposes, every part of our civil 
government, and almost at the same time, imposing 
some duty upon me." He was made a justice of 
the peace, a member of the Common Council, and 
then an alderman, and elected (1752) to the provin- 
cial Assembly. 

" This later station," he explains, " was the more agreeable to me, 

* Under the terms of partnership the new partner was to pay 
Franklin a thousand pounds a year for eighteen years, at the expira- 
tion of which time Hall should become sole proprietor of the busi- 
ness, no further payments being required. Franklin was to contribute 
to the Gazette and to Poor Richard's Alt?tanac. 



76 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

as I was at length tired of sitting there to hear debates in which, as 
clerk, I could take no part, and which were often so unentertaining 
that I was induced to. amuse myself with making magic squares or 
circles, or anything to avoid weariness ; and I conceived my becom- 
ing a member would enlarge my power of doing good." 

He is candid enough to admit, however, that his 
ambition was flattered, as well it might be, and he 
takes pride in recalling that in succeeding years 
during which he served in the Assembly he never 
asked an elector for his vote, or signified, either 
directly or indirectly, " any desire of being chosen." 
This is a confession worth recommending to a few 
modern politicians, but we are not to draw any false 
conclusions from it. Franklin was the soul of hon- 
esty in politics, yet he never forgot that he was a 
business man who was to look out for his own in- 
terests, frankly, openly, and without affectation. 
When he gave up his clerkship in the Assembly, 
his illegitimate son, William Franklin, got the posi- 
tion. Later on he was to take care of his family in 
other ways. It must be confessed that there is in 
this exhibition of thrift something unpleasant, nay, 
sordid, yet we can never forget that, with all this 
nepotism, Franklin put the interests of country 
before his own. If, incidentally, he could benefit 
those nearest to him, and do it without dishonour, 
he seized the opportunity. It were better had he 
been less quick to do so, but such was the man, and 
we must judge him accordingly, never forgetting 
that in any account between the nation and himself, 
he emerged as the creditor rather than as the debtor. 
Our Assemblyman soon launched out into a new 



I754J The Servant of the Public 11 

role, that of an ambassador to the Indians. The 
visit was a sequel to the contest for American su- 
premacy, which had been going on for many years 
between England and France. In the then North- 
west the French adventurers, explorers, and fur- 
traders were pushing their way insidiously toward 
the East, not content with their conquests in South- 
ern territory and the Canadian possessions; a chain 
of French forts had been established between Que- 
bec and New Orleans, and the valley of the Ohio 
was threatened. The sovereignty of England in 
the new continent was being gradually, but none 
the less surely, imperilled. Thus the attitude of the 
Indians became more and more important, and it 
was of the greatest moment that everything should 
be done to check the growing influence exerted upon 
so many of them by the daring subjects of Louis 
XV. It was particularly desirable to make a new 
treaty with the Ohio Indians, and so it came about 
that Franklin and Isaac Norris were appointed to 
represent the Pennsylvania Assembly in treating 
with these savages at Carlisle. It must have been 
an odd, picturesque incident, and the author of the 
AiitobiograpJiy has left a vivid account of it. The 
Indians wanted fire-water, and the commissioners, 
who were diplomats rather than temperance disci- 
ples, promised them plenty of it when the treaty 
was concluded. This business was disposed of to 
the satisfaction of all concerned, the Indians keeping 
sober for the very simple reason that they had 
nothing strong to drink. 

" They then claimed and received the rum ; this was in the after- 



78 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

noon ; they were near one hundred men, women and children, and 
were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square, just 
without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among 
them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter. We 
found they had made a great bon-fire in the middle of the square ; 
they were all drunk, men and women, quarrelling and fighting. Their 
dark-coloured bodies, half-naked, seen only by the gloomy light of the 
bon-fire, running after and beating one another with firebrands, ac- 
companied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene the most resem- 
bling our ideas of hell that could well be imagined ; there was no 
appeasing the tumult, and we retired to our lodging. At midnight a 
number of them came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, 
of which we took no notice." 

The story suggests a chapter from Cooper rather 
than a page from an autobiography. But to con- 
tinue: 

"The next day, sensible they had misbehaved in giving us that 
disturbance, they sent three of their old counsellors to make their 
apology. The orator acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon the 
rum ; and then endeavoured to excuse the rum by saying, ' The Great 
Spirit^ 7vho made all things^ made everything for some use, and what- 
ever use he designed anything for, that use it should ahvays be put to. 
Now, ivhen he made rum, he said, " Let this be for the Indians to 
get drunk with,^' and it must be so.' 

*' And, indeed, if it be the design of Providence to extirpate these 
savages in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems 
not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It has already 
annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea-coast." 

Were Franklin alive to-day, he would have a great 
deal more data on which to base his reflections anent 
liquor and the Indians. As it was, he never forgot 
his experience at Carlisle (it was strange that he es- 
caped with his life from the yelling, rum-beseeching 
redskins who pounded at his door), and subse- 
quently wrote some Remarks Coticerning the Sav- 



1754] The Servant of the Public 79 

ages of North America — a fine, satirical sketch, 
wherein quiet flings at pale-faced avarice and a slyly 
humouros exposition of Indian virtues combine to 
puzzle the reader as to what moral the author really 
meant to draw.* 

Honours were now falling fast upon the wise head 
of Franklin, the greatest of them up to that period 
being his appointment (1753), in conjunction with 
William Hunter, to the postmaster-generalship of 
the colonies. He took up the duties of the position 
with his accustomed energy; visited post-offices 
throughout the country, and instituted a number of 
reforms. These reforms included an increase in the 
frequency of the mails, and in the speed of the post- 
riders. Newspapers were carried at a fair charge, 
instead of free, as before ; postmaster editors were 
obliged to receive rival publications; unclaimed let- 
ters were advertised ; the large towns were given a 
penny post ; the postage on letters in general was 
reduced. The crude state of the postal department, 
even after the appointment of Franklin, may be in- 
ferred from his announcement (1755), that to aid 
trade, etc., he has arranged for the winter northern 
mail from Philadelphia to New England, which 
used to set out but once a fortnight, to start once a 
week all the year round, " whereby answers may be 
obtained to letters between Philadelphia and Boston, 
in three weeks, which used to require six weeks." 
The celerity of the new order of things must have 
fairly taken away the breath of staid old Philadelphia. 

* This curious pamphlet was not published until 1784. It has 
puzzled all of Franklin's commentators, dull or wise. 



8o Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

Again we see the unconcealed desire to look out 
for family interests. William Franklin was made 
controller of the post-ofhce, and then postmaster of 
Philadelphia. To the latter position two relatives 
would, in turn, cheerfully succeed. Here was 
domestic affection with a vengeance, yet the Post- 
master-General's solicitude on this score does not 
blind us to the admirable conduct of his department. 
If all officials were half as energetic and valuable, a 
grateful public would not growl at such an exhibi- 
tion of thoughtfulness. 

In the midst of his attention to mails, post-riders, 
and post-roads, Franklin suddenly loomed up as the 
originator of a scheme which, though it came to 
naught, was the prelude, in a certain sense, to the 
union of the American colonies. The union now 
projected was directed, not against the mother 
country, but against the alarming headway which 
French aggression was making in the British posses- 
sions of the Ohio region. Franklin himself had 
learned, on his visit to Carlisle, that French posts 
were set up at Erie, Venango, and Waterford, and 
that the banks of the Monongahela were threatened 
by the Gallic invaders. Let the onward march of 
the French continue at this ratio, and it would only 
become a question of time as to when the English 
settlers must be driven farther and farther back 
until the Atlantic Ocean confronted them. There 
was alarm in the colonies, and alarm, too, in Eng- 
land. Thus it came about that Governor Dinwiddle, 
of Virginia, sent young George Washington, with a 
small party, out into the wilderness, for the avowed 



1754] The Servant of the PubHc 8i 

purpose of inquiring from the commander of the 
French forces on the Ohio River his reasons for 
entering the British dominions while " a solid peace 
subsisted." ^ 

The adventures of the youth are history, and we 
have not forgotten the hardships of the journey, his 
conference with friendly Indians, or his arrival at 
Waterford. Here stood a well-defended fort, com- 
manded by Saint-Pierre, who threatened to seize 
every Englishman found in the valley of the Ohio, 
and who answered, when Washington sought to in- 
quire by what right he held the fort : " I am here by 
the orders of my general, to which I shall conform 
with exactness." On Washington's return to Vir- 
ginia, early in 1754, the question of resistance to the 
French became more urgent. Why should not the 
colonies unite to repel the enemy ? That was a 
query in many mouths, and Governor Glen, of 
South Carolina, suggested that all the provincial 
governors should meet in Virginia, there to decide 
what supplies each colony must grant for the carry- 
ing on of the proposed defensive warfare. Events 
came rapidly and ominously. The French were in 
command of Fort Duquesne, the newly named post 
captured from the English ; Washington had en- 
joyed his famous brush with the French, wherein he 
heard the bullets whistle and found " something 
charming in the sound " ; the numbers of the enemy 
increased, and all things pointed to a slow, but none 
the less certain,- diminution of English prestige and 

* See the interesting account which Bancroft gives of this journey, 

History of the United States, last revision, vol. ii., chap. v. 
6 



82 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

English territory in America. The standard of 
France might in time float over a whole continent. 

It may be imagined that Franklin anxiously 
watched the progress of affairs, and that no one 
realised more strongly than he the disadvantage ac- 
cruing from the disunited condition of the colonies. 
Before me now is a faded, yellow, but still legible 
copy of the Pennsylvania Gazette ^ for May 9, 1754, 
wherein he sounds the note of warning. 

" Friday last," he chronicles, " an express arrived here from Major 
Washington, with advice that Mr. Ward, Ensign of Captain Trent's 
company, was compelled to surrender his small Fort in the Forks of 
Monongahela to the French, on the 17th past ; who fell down from 
Venango with a Fleet of 360 Battoes and Canoes, upwards of 1000 
Men, and 18 Pieces of Artillery, which they Planted against the Fort ; 
and Mr. Ward having but 44 men, and no Cannon to make a proper 
Defence, was obliged to surrender on summons, capitulating to march 
out with their Arms, etc., and they had accordingly joined Major 
Washington, who was advanced with three Companies of the Virginia 
Forces, as far as the New Store near the Allegheny Mountains, where 
the men were employed in clearing a Road for the Cannon, which 
were every Day expected with Col. Fry and the Remainder of the 
Regiment. . . . The Indian chiefs, however, have dispatched 
Messages to Pennsylvania and Virginia, desiring that the English 
would not be discouraged, but send out their Warriors to join them, 
and drive the French out of the Country before they fortify ; other- 
wise the Trade will be lost, to their great Grief an eternal separation 
made between the Indians and their Brethren the English." 

This news paragraph, which is quoted because it 
shows so succinctly the precarious condition in which 
the colonists on the western border found them- 
selves, goes on to say that, according to rumour, 
more of the French are coming up the Ohio, and 
that six hundred French Indians — the invaders knew 



1754] The Servant of the Public 83 

how to win savage allies — are about to join them, 
" the design being to establish themselves, settle 
their Indians, and build Forts just in the Back of 
our Settlements in all our Colonies; from which 
Forts, as they did from Crown Point, they may 
send out their Parties to kill and scalp the Inhabit- 
ants and ruin the Frontier Counties." But here 
comes the key-note of the whole article : 

" The Confidence of the French in this Undertaking seems well 
grounded on the present disunited state of the British Colonies, and 
the extreme Difificulty of bringing so many different Governments and 
Assemblies to agree in any speedy and effectual Measures for our 
common Defence and Security ; while our Enemies have the very 
great Advantage of being under one Direction, with one Council, 
and one Purse." 

At the end of the long paragraph is a wood-cut 
representing a snake chopped into pieces (each 
piece typifying a colony), and beneath it the warn- 
ing, ** Join or Die." A prophetic motto. 

The great idea illustrated by this crude wood-cut 
had notable enunciation from Franklin when he at- 
tended, in the summer of 1754, the convention 
which commissioners from the several colonies held 
at Albany, by direction of the English Government, 
to secure the alliance of the Six Nations, Indians 
whose help was of the greatest necessity should an 
open rupture arise between Great Britain and France. 
It was but natural that the question of a colonial 
union should be discussed, and hardly less natural 
that the fertile-minded statesman from Pennsylvania 
should have a plan of his own to put before the 
members. The scheme was elaborately drawn up, 



84 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

and provided for a general government administered 
by a President-General, supported by the crown, 
and by a Grand Council to be elected from the as- 
semblies. While the independence of each colony, 
so far as related to its internal affairs, was to be main- 
tained, the President-General would be empowered, 
with the consent of the Grand Council, to make 
treaties with the Indians, conduct Indian wars, levy 
taxes for the support of the general government, 
and for public defence, and to otherwise exercise 
important prerogatives. 

The plan had so many virtues that it was finally 
adopted by the commissioners, subject, of course, 
to the approval of the British Parliament. Never 
before had Franklin occupied so commanding a 
position before his fellow-colonists ; never before 
had his talent for civic law and order been displayed 
to such remarkable advantage. Yet the union, as 
he outlined it, was not to meet with official favour. 
" Its fate," as he himself says, " was singular: the 
assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought 
there was too vcwxch. prerogative in it, and in England 
it was judged to have too much of the democratic.'" 

The chief fault seems to have been that the plan 
hinted at too great centralisation of power — or so, 
at least, urged its enemies. From the point of view 
of its American opponents such a union might 
detract from the individual importance of each col- 
ony ; from the point of view of the English Govern- 
ment the scheme, if logically carried out, was likely 
to make the united provinces too self-assertive. 

Reflecting men in England," observes Bancroft, 



1754] The Servant of the Public 85 

** dreaded American union as the keystone of inde- 
pendence." 

The project, therefore, fell to the ground, but it 
remained for Franklin to give a further unconscious 
hint of the Revolution by declaring war against the 
theory that England might tax the Americans, not- 
withstanding that they had no representation in 
Parliament. This protest came about through the 
desire of the home government to substitute for his 
plan of union one of its own, ** whereby," as he 
explained, " the governors of the provinces, with 
some members of their respective councils, were to 
meet and order the raising of troops, building of 
forts, etc., and to draw on the treasury of Great 
Britain for the expense, which was afterwards to be 
refunded by an act of Parliament, laying a tax on 
America.'' The British idea was divulged to him 
by Governor Shirley, when Franklin visited Boston 
in the winter of 1754. The latter's objections to it 
were immortalised in three noble letters which he 
wrote to the Governor. In them he clearly pointed 
out that Englishmen possessed, supposedly, an un- 
doubted right not to be taxed but by their own con- 
sent, given through their representatives; that the 
colonies had no representatives in Parliament ; and 
that to propose taxing them by Parliament, and to 
refuse them the liberty of choosing a representative 
Council to meet in the colonies, to consider and 
judge of the necessity of any general tax and the 
quantum, " shows a suspicion of their loyalty to the 
crown, or of their regard for their country, or for 
their common-sense and understanding, which they 



86 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

have not deserved." Here the philosopher had 
crystallised into logical, sensible form a great prin- 
ciple of right which would in time form the loudest 
war-cry of rebellious America. 

How changing, indeed, is the scene, as we follow 
the man through that wonderful life of which he 
made so much ! One moment he is calmly setting 
forth the grandest precepts of patriotism, and in the 
next we have him chatting gaily over his wine, and 
getting in a sly little joke about his neighbours, the 
Quakers, or indulging in a good-natured quarrel with 
Governor Morris, the new executive of Pennsyl- 
vania. The Governor was, inevitably, the creature 
of the Penns, the proprietors of the province, and it 
was pretty safe to predict that as his instructions 
were not altogether in accord with the interests of 
the Assembly, particularly as the proprietaries in- 
sisted on having their own estates exempt from 
taxation, the relations between him and that body 
would not be ideal in character. When Franklin 
first met Morris, who had arrived from England, the 
latter inquired if he was to expect an uncomfortable 
administration. ** No," said the Philadelphian, 
" you may, on the contrary, have a very comfort- 
able one, if you will only take care not to enter into 
any dispute with the Assembly," to which the new 
Governor pleasantly responded: ** How can you 
advise my avoiding disputes ? You know I love 
disputing; it is one of my greatest pleasures; how- 
ever, to show the regard I have for your counsel, I 
promise you I will, if possible, avoid them." The 
promise was not kept ; Morris and the Assembly 



1754] The Servant of the Public 87 

waged bitter warfare, and one of the men appointed 
by the legislators to oppose him was Franklin, who 
had to draw up many addresses of defiance. The 
Governor must have had an abiding affection for his 
official enemy, for the two often dined together, 
instead, as was to be expected, of passing each other 
on the street without a look of recognition. 

During these years of political activity, which 
would have sufficed to monopolise the time and 
energies of almost anyone else, Franklin had been 
able to bestir himself in other and very important 
directions. He published a short-lived magazine 
(1740-41) ; founded the American Philosophical 
Society (1743)*; became instrumental in the open- 
ing of an academy which is now considered the 
lineal ancestor of the University of Pennsylvania 
(1749-50) ; assisted in the establishment of the 
Pennsylvania Hospital ; received the degree of 
Master of Arts from Harvard and Yale Colleges, 
and excited scientific Europe by those wonderful 
electrical discoveries, of which mention will be made 
in a subsequent chapter. 

The magazine episode, which is not hinted at in 
the Autobiography (probably because it was an un- 
pleasant theme), involved Franklin in a quarrel, and, 
unlike most of his plans, resulted in nothing. He 
had made up his mind — not so canny a mind in this 
instance as usual — that the time was ripe for the 
publication of a magazine in the American colonies, 
and he went so far as to engage an editor for the 



* Not in 1744, the date which Franklin incorrectly gives in his 
A uiobiop-aphy. 



88 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

venture. John Webbe was the fortunate man 
selected, and so enterprising and dishonest a gentle- 
man was he that he suddenly came out in the rival 
paper, the Mercury^ with the announcement that he 
would start a magazine of his own. It was history 
repeating itself ; Webbe was another Keimer. 
Franklin, nothing daunted, issued a prospectus for 
a General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for 
all the British Plantations in America (what a title 
was that for pomposity!), and announced that in 
spite of the perfidy of one to whom he had confided 
he would persevere with the scheme as originally 
proposed. Then Mr. Webbe assailed Franklin 
through the Mercury ; Bradford, the printer, was 
drawn into the controversy, and finally the charge 
was made against our philosopher that as post- 
master he prohibited the carrying, by the post- 
riders, of the Gazette' s rival, the aforesaid Mercury. 
FrankHn, thus prodded, defends himself in an 
article in the Gazette of December ii (1740). 

" The Publick," he observes, solemnly, " has been entertained for 
these three weeks past, with angry Papers, written expressly against 
me, and published in the Mercu7y. The two first I utterly neg- 
lected, as believing that both the Facts therein stated and the extra- 
ordinary Reasonings upon them, might be safely enough left to 
themselves without any Animadversion ; and I have the Satisfaction 
to find that the Event has answered my Expectations : But the last 
my Friends think 't is necessary I should take some Notice of, as it 
contains an Accusation that has at least a Shew of Probability, being 
printed by a Person to whom it particularly relates, who could not 
but know whether it was true or false ; and who, having still some 
Reputation to guard, it may be presumed could by no means be pre- 
vailed on to publish a Thing as Truth, which was contrary to his own 
knowledge." 



1754] The Servant of the Public 89 

The writer went on to admit that he had, for up- 
ward of a twelvemonth, been obHged to deny the 
Mercury the privilege of the post, by the positive 
commands of Colonel Spotswood, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral of the colonies. He then followed this up by 
inserting an interesting, if somewhat sensational, 
letter from Spotswood, in which that functionary 
wrote Franklin (October 12, 1739), that he had not 
been able to obtain any account from Bradford, as 
postmaster at Philadelphia, from midsummer, 1734. 
This warfare is not agreeable to dwell upon, whether 
viewed from the standpoint of Bradford, of Webbe, 
or of Franklin. It might, however, be said, in be- 
half of Franklin, that the criticism in the Mercury 
had goaded him to the quick, impeaching, as it did, 
his avowed intention of allowing his rivals' news- 
papers to circulate through the mails without hin- 
drance. He had, as we have seen, put this generous 
reform into effect when he became the local post- 
master, and it was only countermanded by the angry 
orders of Colonel Spotswood. Nay, Franklin had 
even gone so far, after the arrival of the letter, as 
to allow the Mercury to be secretly given to the 
post-riders, for distribution. Yet the pen-and-ink 
controversy offers nothing but unpleasantness, nor 
is it to be wondered at that the respective magazines 
of Webbe and the postmaster had a short existence. 
They were stupid publications, even for those formal, 
ponderous days, and died from the journalistic in- 
anition which comes of public neglect. 

The glimpses of Franklin are brighter in other 
paths of effort. Take him, for instance, when he is 



90 Benjamin Franklin [1736- 

founding that academy which is generally accepted 
as the origin of the University of Pennsylvania, de- 
spite the assertion, in some quarters, that the great 
institution near the Schuylkill dates further back, to 
a charity-school project.* Then, it is attractive to 
think of him as he busied himself with Dr. Bond, in 
working for the new hospital — now an old but pro- 
gressive hospital — which has done so much, for near- 
ly a century and a half, to relieve sick or maimed 
humanity. It has been argued, to be sure, that in 
securing a legislative appropriation for the enterprise 
Franklin acted with a slyness a trifle too Machiavel- 
lian to be approved. Perhaps his enemies are not 
without warrant for their criticism, but let the reader 
hear the story in his own words, and determine how 
far they care to blame his enthusiasm in aiding what 
is now one of the greatest hospitals in the world : 

" The subscriptions afterwards [i. e., after Franklin had taken 
hold of the project] were more free and generous ; but, beginning to 
flag, I saw they would be insufficient without some assistance from 
the Assembly, and therefore proposed to petition for it, which was 
done. The country members did not at first relish the project ; they 
objected that it could only be serviceable to the city, and therefore 
the citizens alone should be at the expense of it ; and they doubted 
whether the citizens themselves generally approved of it. My allega- 
tion on the contrary, that it met with such approbation as to leave no 
doubt of our being able to raise two thousand pounds by voluntary 
donations, they considered as a most extravagant supposition, and 
utterly impossible. 

"On this I formed my plan, and, asking leave to bring in a bill 
for incorporating the contributors according to the prayer of their 



* Readers interested in the " pedigree" of the University of Penn- 
sylvania should consult the supplementary chapters written by the 
late Dr. Frederick D. Stone for Dr. Wood's history of that institution. 




I 

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Q o 

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I I 

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to O 

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< s 

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« 5 



UJ £ 
CL J. 

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1754] The Servant of the Public 91 

petition, and granting them a blank sum of money, which leave was 
obtained chiefly on the consideration that the House could throw the 
bill out if they did not like it, I drew it so as to make the important 
clause a conditional one, viz. : ' And be it enacted, by the authority 
aforesaid, that when the said contributors shall have met and chosen 
their managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by their contribu- 
tions a capital stock of . . . value . . . arid shall make the 
same appear to the satisfaction of the speaker of the Assembly for the 
time being, that theji it shall and may be lawful for the said speaker, 
and he is hereby required, to sign an order on the provincial treasurer 
for the payment of two thousand pounds, in two yearly payments, to 
the treasurer of the said hospital, to be applied to the founding, 
building and finishing of the same.' 

"This condition carried the bill through; for the members who 
had opposed the grant, and now conceived they might have the 
credit of being charitable without the expense, agreed to its passage ; 
and then, in soliciting subscriptions among the people, we urged the 
conditional promise of the law as an additional motive to give, since 
every man's donation would be doubled ; thus the clause worked both 
ways. The subscriptions accordingly soon exceeded the requisite 
sum, and we claimed and received the public gift, which enabled us 
to carry the design into execution. . . . I do not remember any 
of my political manoeuvres, the success of which gave me at the time 
more pleasure, or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused 
myself for having made some use of cunning." 

Cunning it was, without doubt, but many a weary, 
pain-racked inmate of the hospital has had reason to 
bless an innocent artifice which produced such a 
noble result. If the cunning of all public men went 
no further than this, the book of politics would read 
like a benign fairy-tale. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE PHILOSOPHER IN MARTIAL MOOD 




1755-I756 

HEN General Braddock, brave, blus- 
tering, and foolishly confident, came 
over to Virginia in the winter of 
1754-55, with two regiments of Eng- 
lish regulars, for the purpose of cap- 
turing Fort Duquesne, vanquishing the French 
invaders, and restoring the ascendency of Great 
Britain upon the American continent, Franklin be- 
came one of his most valuable henchmen and gave 
him some good advice which, had the officer taken, 
would have saved the latter from death and disgrace. 
But Braddock belonged to a stiff-necked generation; 
he had been sent to put an end forever to French 
aggression, and he intended to do it in his own way. 
He knew little about the dangers lurking in the 
western wilderness, and nothing about Indian war- 
fare, but what mattered that ? Was he not an 
English soldier, fit to cope with barbarians ? He 
was, in fine, a martinet, with more than the custom- 
ary obstinacy of his kind, and he proposed to con- 

92 



1756] In Martial Mood 93 

quer the enemy, Gaul or Indian, on purely scientific 
principles, exactly as if he were to deal with an 
army of civilised Europe.* 

No sooner did Braddock arrive in Virginia, and 
begin to prepare his plan of campaign, than Penn- 
sylvania fell under the ban of his displeasure. There 
had been the usual contest between the Governor 
and the Assembly, with a reiteration of the right of 
the Penns to have their estates exempted from tax- 
ation, and, as a result, nothing had ensued but 
disagreement and unsatisfactory legislation. Penn- 
sylvania did, to be sure, borrow i^SOOO currency, to 
be expended under her own direction in defending 
the colony, but she had failed to raise a provincial 
force to operate, as was desired, under Braddock. 
Domestic wrangling rather than a lack of loyalty was 
the cause of this tardiness, but the General was too 
short-sighted, or too pig-headed, to make any dis- 
tinction in the matter. He lost his temper, grew 
angry at the slowness of some of the colonies to 
come to his help in the way he expected, and acted 
throughout with exactly that want of tact to be 
looked for in a man of his stupid, burly character. 

" You may assure your Assembly," he savagely informs Governor 
Morris, " I shall have regard to the different behaviour of the several 
colonies, and shall regulate their quarters accordingly, and that I will 
repair, by unpleasant methods, what for the character and honour of 
the Assemblies I should be much happier to see cheerfully supplied." 

Would the General use Pennsylvania as a province 



*" Desperate in his fortune, brutal in his behaviour, obstinate in 
his sentiments," says Walpole, " he was still intrepid and capable." 



94 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

to be conquered and pillaged, rather than as an ally ? 
That was the question which some of her inhabitants 
asked themselves, and the fact that Braddock be- 
lieved the Pennsylvanians to be selling provisions to 
the French did not tend to reassure them.* He 
went so far as to write home to Lord Halifax that 
the inhabitants of these colonies in general have 
shown much negligence for His Majesty's service 
and their own interests," and after excepting Vir- 
ginia from this censure he added : 

*' I cannot sufficiently express my indignation against the provinces 
of Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose interests being alike concerned 
in the event of this expedition, and much more so than any other on 
this continent, refuse to contribute anything towards the project ; and 
what they propose is made upon no other terms than such as are 
altogether contrary to the King's prerogatives and to the instructions 
he has sent their governors." 

Then, in an angry spirit of retaliation, the writer 
urges ** the necessity of laying a tax upon all His 
Majesty's dominions in America." 

It cannot be forgotten that Braddock, impatient 
and overbearing as he was, had ground for com- 
plaint, from the British point of view. Several of 

* When the prospect of a war between the two countries (England 
and France) was imminent, and the French in Canada were anxious 
to buy in a store of provisions, the commercial colonies of New 
York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts hastened to supply them. 
Within three months of the first battle, no less than forty English 
vessels lay at one time in the harbour of Louisbourg. It is proper 
to say that Pennsylvania was not otherwise engaged in this traffic 
than in selling flour to the merchants of other colonies, who pursued 
it until stopped by the stringent enactments of their own legislatures. 
The History of an Expedition against Fo7't DuQuesne, by Winthrop 
Sargent. 



1756] In Martial Mood 95 

the legislatures had, indeed, voted appropriations 
for the common defence, but the money was, with 
the exception of South Carolina's contribution, 
spent under the direction of the several provinces. 
There was patriotism, but no unison, and to a man 
of the General's temper the situation must have 
been exasperating. How different might have been 
the state of affairs and the result to the French, had 
the English Government shown the courage to 
sanction the union of the colonies as proposed by 
Franklin! 

Here the philosopher looms up again in a meeting 
with a man who of all persons resembled him the 
least — Braddock himself. Franklin and Braddock 
face to face — that is a picturesque contrast which 
has always seemed one of the most bizarre incidents 
of colonial history, and even Fiction, as represented 
by the imperishable Thackeray, has sought to im- 
mortalise it. Braddock, the beefy example of all 
that is dullest in the English nature, and Franklin, 
the example of all that is most subtle in the same 
nature! Not only greeting each other, too, but 
getting congenial into the bargain (trust our Benja- 
min for that), and having many a pleasant talk with 
Major Washington, who was far better suited to 
have command of the expedition than was the ill- 
fated disciplinarian from Britain. 

It was time, indeed, that the great Pennsylvanian 
should carry out the request of the Assembly that 
he see Braddock, and remove, if possible, the preju- 
dices which the latter had conceived against the 



!=>' 



province. That was a hard thing to do, but if the 



9^ Benjamin Franklin [175^- 

task was to be attempted not a moment must be 
lost. St. Clair, Braddock's Quartermaster-General, 
was already threatening to invade Pennsylvania, 
where his army would confiscate waggons, horses, 
and cattle, and burn houses; he announced that if 
the French defeated them, owing to the delay of the 
province, he would with his drawn sword march 
through the country and treat the inhabitants as a 

parcel of traitors." Bullying, lire-eating words, 
but their sound was not comforting. 

How was Franklin to accomplish his delicate mis- 
sion ? To go boldly as an ambassador from the 
hated province might expose him to insult. Some 
other method of approach to the English Mogul was 
necessary. It was decided, therefore, that the en- 
voy should go in the capacity of Postmaster-General, 

under the guise of proposing to settle with him the 
mode of conducting with most celerity and certainty 
the despatches between him and the governors of 
the several provinces." It was at Fredericktown, 
then, that the traveller found Braddock, now fretting 
and fuming for the return of the parties which had 
been sent out to collect waggons from the farmers 
of Maryland and Virginia. Not a very propitious 
moment in which to approach the martinet, but the 
thing had to be done, and if we are to judge from 
results the task of conversion was accomplished 
with the rarest finesse. The General had plenty of 
oaths, no doubt, for the unpatriotic conduct of 
Pennsylvania. Why, he asked, had the province 
refused his army waggons, horses, and food, refused 
them, too, a road from the camp to her back settle- 



1756] In Martial Mood 97 

ments, and otherwise played the part of a lukewarm, 
not to say disaffected, colony ? What Franklin an- 
swered to this torrent of invective we know not in 
plain, set terms, but we do know that he said 
enough, during the dinners which he and his son 
William took with the commanding officer, to re- 
move " all his prejudices." No doubt he placed 
strong emphasis on that ^^5000 which the province 
had authorised for the general cause — to be spent 
under her own supervision. It must be admitted 
that there had been little in the conduct of Pennsyl- 
vania to impress with favour the arbitrary mind of 
Braddock, and so much the more, therefore, shines 
out the persuasive ability of her champion. With 
a poor case to start with, he yet won over to his 
view one of the most obstinate men of the age. 

Having succeeded in this difficult enterprise the 
Postmaster-General was about to return to Philadel- 
phia, when the waggon-hunting parties arrived. 
Braddock was on tiptoe of expectation to know the 
result. He did not have to wait long; twenty-five 
waggons, not all of them in serviceable condition, 
were soon counted. What a " scene " there must 
have been! " The General and all the officers were 
surprised, declared the expedition was then at an 
end, being impossible, and exclaimed against the 
Ministers for ignorantly landing them in a country 
destitute of the means of conveying their stores, 
baggage, etc., not less than one hundred and fifty 
waggons being necessary." Whereupon Franklin 
observed that it was a pity the regiments had not 
been landed in Penns3dvania, as in that country 



9^ Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

almost every farmer had his own waggon. This 
seemed as a ray of hope to Braddock, who ex- 
claimed, " Then you, sir, who are a man of interest 
there, can probably procure them for us; and I beg 
you will undertake it." 

The Postmaster-General, ever business-like, at 
once asked what terms would be offered the owners 
of the waggons. It was suggested that he should 
put on paper the terms he thought necessary. This 
was done, and after the scheme, as he outlined it, 
was duly approved, Franklin journeyed back to 
Pennsylvania, and issued from Lancaster, under 
date of April 26, 1755, an ** advertisement " asking 
for a hundred and fifty waggons, with four horses to 
each waggon, and numerous saddle-horses, all for 
the services of his Majesty's forces. There was to 
be paid for the use of each waggon, with four good 
horses and a driver, fifteen shillings per diem, with 
damages in case of their loss in the service. The 
advertisement was accompanied by an address " To 
the inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, York, 
and Cumberland," which was intended to stiffen the 
patriotic backbone of Pennsylvanians, and to appeal 
to their sense of fear, 

" Friends and Countrymen," Franklin loftily began. " Being oc- 
casionally at the camp at Frederic a few days since, I found the 
general and officers extremely exasperated on account of their not 
being supplied with horses and carriages which had been expected 
from this province, as most able to furnish them ; but, through the 
dissensions between our governor and Assembly, money had not 
been provided, nor any steps taken for that purpose. It was pro- 
posed to send an armed force immediately into these counties, to 
seize as many of the best carriages and horses as should be wanted, 



1756] In Martial Mood 99 

and compel as many persons into the service as would be necessary 
to drive and take care of them." 

After this adroit beginning, wherein the crafty 
writer hints at what might have happened, he al- 
ludes, in apparent innocence, to the inconveniences 
of such a raid, and then dwells upon the money to 
be obtained by the inhabitants through the hire of 
their waggons and horses — to be paid in " silver and 
gold of the King's money." 

" If," he says, " you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal 
subjects to his majesty, you may now do a most acceptable service, 
and make it easy to yourselves ; for three or four of such as can not 
separately spare from the business of their plantations a waggon and 
four horses and a driver, may do it together, one furnishing the wag- 
gon, another one or two horses, and another the driver, and divide 
the pay proportionably between you ; but if you do not this service 
to your king and country voluntarily, when such good pay and reason- 
able terms are offered to you, your loyalty will be strongly suspected. 
The King's business must be done ; so many brave troops, come so 
far for your defence, must not stand idle through your backwardness 
to do what may be reasonably expected from you ; waggons and 
horses must be had ; violent measures will probably be used, and 
you will be left to seek for a recompense where you can find it, and 
your case, perhaps, be little pitied or regarded." 

There is almost a tyrannic ring about this pro- 
clamation, but the writer thereof had pretty good 
reason to believe that to play a bit upon the fears of 
the farmers would help, as much as an appeal to 
patriotism, to unlock the doors of their barns. And 
he closes in this laconic but terrifying fashion : 

" I have no particular interest in this affair, as, except the satis- 
faction of endeavouring to do good, I shall have only my labour for my 
pains. If this method of obtaining the waggons and horses is not 



loo Benjamin Franklin [^755- 

likely to succeed, I am obliged to send word to the general in four- 
teen days ; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair, the hussar, with a body 
of soldiers, will immediately enter the province for the purpose, 
which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am very sincerely and truly 
your friend and well-wisher. 

" B. Franklin." 



As it was St. Clair, as before noted, who threat- 
ened to treat the Pennsylvanians as " a parcel of 
traitors," the bringing in of his name was somewhat 
of a master-stroke, albeit a cruel one. To add to 
the strength of his call for help Franklin gave his 
personal bond for the performance of the promises 
of pay and damages set forth in the advertisement, 
and he also loaned, from his own purse, upwards of 
two hundred pounds to supplement the seven or 
eight hundred pounds given him by Braddock as 
advance money. In two weeks the hundred and 
fifty waggons, with two hundred and fifty-nine 
carrying horses, were off for the camp, and the de- 
lighted General would write home that Franklin's 
service was ** almost the only instance of address 
and fidelity " which he had seen in all the provinces. 

There is a colour and vividness in all this Brad- 
dock-Franklin episode to which the historian, who 
is apt to regard facts more than effect, has never 
done justice. Thackeray, when he came to write 
The Virginians, saw how the intimacy of the pair 
could be turned to artistic advantage, and he has 
left us as attractive a bit of description as ever 
graced a novel. It is fiction, with a few errors, but 
for all that the scene brings us closer to reality than 
the dry-as-dust data of a hundred biographers. 



1756] In Martial Mood loi 

Braddock is riding in state to visit Madam Esmond, 
with dragoons in front and Captain Talmadge trot- 
ting by the side of the coach. 

"Major Danvers, aide-de-camp, sat in the front of the carriage 
with the little postmaster from Philadelphia, Mr. Franklin, who, 
printer's boy as he had been, was a wonderful shrewd person, as 
his Excellency and the gentlemen of his family were fain to acknowl- 
edge, having a quantity of the most curious information respecting 
the colony, and regarding England, too, where Mr. Franklin had 
been more than once.* ' 'T was extraordinary how a person of such 
humble origin should have acquired such a variety of learning and 
such a politeness of breeding, too, Mr. Franklin ! ' his Excellency 
was pleased to observe, touching his hat graciously to the postmaster. 

"The postmaster bowed, said it had been his occasional good- 
fortune to fall into the company of gentlemen like his Excellency, 
and that he had taken the advantage of his opportunity to study their 
honours' manners, and adapt himself to them as far as he might. As 
for education, he could not boast much of that — his father being but 
in straightened circumstances, and the advantages small in his native 
country of New England : but he had done to the utmost of his 
power, and gathered what he could — he knew nothing like what they 
had in England. 

" Mr. Braddock burst out laughing, and said, ' as for education, 
there were gentlemen of the army, by George, who did n't know 
whether they should spell bull with two b's or one. He had heard 
the Duke of Marlborough was no special good penman. He had not 
the honour of serving under that noble commander — his Grace was 
before his time — but he thrashed the French soundly, although he 
was no scholar.' 

" Mr. Franklin said he was aware of both those facts. 

" * Nor is my Duke [Duke of Cumberland, Braddock's patron] a 
scholar,' went on Mr. Braddock — ' aha, Mr. Postmaster, you have 
heard that too, — I see, by the wink in your eye.' 

" Mr. Franklin instantly withdrew the obnoxious or satirical wink 
in his eye, and looked into the general's jolly round face with a pair 



* Thackeray was mistaken in this, as we know ; up to that time 
Franklin had been in England but once. 



105 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

of orbs as innocent as a baby's. ' He 's no scholar, but he is a match 
for any French general that ever swallowed the English ior fricassee 
de craiipaud. He saved the crown for the best of Kings, his royal 
father, his most gracious Majesty, King George.' 

"Off went Mr. Franklin's hat and from his large buckled wig 
escaped a great halo of powder." 

'* ' You shall drink his health to-day. Postmaster. He is the best 
of masters, the best of friends, the best of sons to his royal old 
father ; the best of gentlemen that ever wore an epaulet.' 

" ' Epaulets are quite out of my way, sir,' says Mr. Franklin, 
laughing. ' You know I live in a Quaker City.' 

" ' Of course they are out of your way, my good friend. Every 
man to his business. You, and gentlemen of your class, to your 
books, and welcome. We don't forbid you ; we encourage you. "We, 
to fight the enemy and govern the country. Hey, gentlemen ? Ford ! 
what roads you have in this colony, and how this confounded coach 
plunges ! Who have we here with the two negro boys in livery ? 
He rides a good gelding.' 

" ' It is Mr. Washington,' says the aide-de-camp. 

" ' I would like him for a corporal of the Horse Grenadiers,' said 
the General. ' He has a good figure on a horse. He knows the 
country, too, Mr. Franklin.' 

" ' Yes, indeed.' 

" 'And is a monstrous genteel young man, considering the oppor- 
tunities he has had. I should have thought he had the polish of 
Europe, by George, I should.' 

" ' He does his best,' says Mr. Franklin, looking innocently at the 
stout chief, the exemplar of English elegance, who sat swagging 
from one side to the other of the carriage, his face as scarlet as his 
coat — swearing at every word ; ignorant on every point off parade, 
except the merits of a bottle and the looks of a woman ; not of high 
birth, yet absurdly proud of his no-ancestry ; brave as a bull-dog ; 
savage, lustful, prodigal, generous ; gentle in soft moods ; easy of 
love and laughter ; dull of wit ; utterly unread ; believing his country 
the first in the world, and he as good a gentleman as any in it." 

Thackeray was not an historian (though he did 
impale the *' Four Georges " on the spikes of his 



1756] In Martial Mood 103 

satire), yet this glimpse of Braddock and the "Httle 
postmaster " brings us nearer to these two worthies 
than pages of commonplace detail. In several in- 
stances the author has gotten away from fact, as 
when he applies to Franklin the diminutive adjec- 
tive, but in spirit and general truth of perspective 
the description is admirable. 

Those must have been attractive experiences of 
camp life for our philosopher. Thoroughly did he 
enjoy them, and none the less so, probably, because 
of the important part he played in the scene. Once, 
at the regimental mess. Colonel Dunbar waxed 
pathetic over the poverty of the subaltern ofificers, 
who could ill afford to purchase in so dear-priced a 
country the stores needful for their long march 
through the wilderness. The Postmaster-General 
was all sympathy, and the next morning he wrote 
home suggesting that the Assembly should make 
some appropriate presents to the young men. Wil- 
liam Franklin, who was doubtless made much of by 
the subalterns, and knew their little tastes, drew up 
a list which his father enclosed in the letter, and in 
the course of time twenty parcels (each parcel placed 
on a horse which was intended as a present for 
one ofificer) arrived at camp. There were tongues, 
sugar, cheese, tea, coffee, and much else, not for- 
getting plenty of Madeira, always regarded as among 
the '* necessities " in those wdne-bibbing days when 
the officer who could not punish a bottle at dinner 
was looked upon as quite unfit for the service of his 
most Germanic of Majesties, George II. Franklin 
was back in Pennsylvania when the provisions 



I04 Benjamin Franklin Lnss- 

reached the army, but he was the recipient of grate- 
ful letters, and was further honoured (?) by a request 
from Braddock to do what he could for the victual- 
ling of the forces in Virginia. To assist in the latter 
work the Postmaster-General advanced, out of his 
own pocket, over ;^iooo sterling, and was fortunate 
in getting an order for almost the whole of that 
amount, just before the General's disastrous defeat. 
The balance due was to remain until the next ac- 
count — but when the time for settling arrived. Brad- 
dock had gone to his own last account, and that was 
an end to the matter. 

It is a tribute to Franklin's sagacity that, civilian 
though he was, he had given Braddock a piece of 
advice which, had it been taken, might have turned 
a disastrous campaign into triumphant victory. One 
day the General, in airing before his visitor the plan 
of campaign, confidently remarked: " After taking 
Fort Duquesne I am to proceed to Niagara; and, 
having taken that, to Frontenac, if the season will 
allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne 
can hardly detain me above three or four days ; and 
then I see nothing that can obstruct my march to 
Niagara." 

Franklin was not a military man, yet he saw very 
clearly that there were more difficulties in the way 
of the English troops than were dreamed of in 
the arrogant, know-it-all philosophy of Braddock. 
Having before revolved in his mind the long line 
the army must make in their march by a very narrow 
road to be cut for them through the woods and 
bushes, and recalling the defeat of fifteen hundred 



1756] In Martial Mood 105 

French who had invaded the country of the Iroquois, 
he had serious misgivings as to the outcome of the 
campaign. And he repHed politely to the glowing 
prophecies of the General : 

" To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Duquesne, with these 
fine troops, so well provided with artillery, that place not yet com- 
pletely fortified, and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can 
probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend 
of obstruction to your march is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by 
constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them ; and 
the slender line, near four miles long, which your army must make, 
may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut 
like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot 
come up in time to support each other." 

The Englishman smiled good-naturedly at the 
sublime ignorance displayed in such a speech. What 
could the half-civilised Americans know of the great 
art of warfare — that art which the mighty Duke of 
Marlborough had raised to such a pinnacle of sci- 
ence? So Braddock answered, half contemptuously: 

These savages, may, indeed, be a formidable 
enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the 
King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is im- 
possible they should make any impression." The 

little postmaster " was modestly " conscious of an 
impropriety " in " disputing with a military man in 
matters of his profession," and said no more. Little 
did he then dream that after the passing of two dec- 
ades the " raw American militia " would begin to 
open the eyes of British officers who thought as did 
the General. 

Before the middle of July the bloody battle of the 



io6 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

Monongahela had been fought, and an ambuscade 
of French and Indians, of which Braddock had been 
so often warned, put an end to a thousand vain- 
glorious hopes, and to many a Hfe deserving of a 
better death. How the Enghsh soldiers, marching 
gaily accoutred as though on dress-parade, were 
surprised by the enemy when within a short distance 
of Fort Duquesne, and led into a veritable trap; how 
they were thrown into fatal confusion by the galling 
fire which came from the invisible savages planted 
behind the trees; and how the action, if action it 
could be called, ended in a disastrous rout — the 
colonies rang with the appalling description for 
many a day. What a scene of slaughter! Not the 
regular warfare beloved by Braddock, but an insidi- 
ous fire from an unseen foe. Officers tried to rally 
their men, only to be shot down themselves, while 
the General, now that he saw too late the fruits of 
his obstinacy and criminal foolishness, stormed and 
implored, riding from rank to rank, and trying to 
bring order out of chaos. 

" In a narrow road twelve feet wide, shut up on either side and 
overpent by the primeval forest, were crowded together the panic- 
stricken wretches, hastily loading and reloading, and blindly dis- 
charging their guns in the air, as though they suspected their 
mysterious murderers were sheltered in the boughs above their heads ; 
while all around, removed from sight, but making day hideous with 
their war-hoops and savage cries, lay ensconced a host insatiable for 
blood. . . . The regular soldiery, deprived of their immediate 
commanders, and terrified at the incessant fall of their comrades, 
could not be brought to the charge ; while the provincials, better 
skilled, sought in vain to cover themselves and to meet the foe upon 
equal terms ; for to the urgent entreaties of Washington and Sir 
Peter Halket [Colonel of the Forty-fourth Regiment, killed in the 



1756] In Martial Mood 107 

battle, with one of his sons] that the men might be permitted to 
leave the ranks and shelter themselves, the General turned a deaf 
ear. Wherever he saw a man skulking behind a tree, he flew at 
once to the spot, and, with curses on his cowardice and blows with 
the flat of his sword, drove him back into the open road." * 

How like Braddock! A blunderer to the last. 
Nor would he retire from the forest-field until out 
of his fourteen hundred and sixty men, officers and 
privates, over four hundred were killed and as many 
more wounded ! Then, " with a mien undaunted as 
in his proudest hour," he ordered the drums to 
sound the retreat. The surviving privates, who had 
behaved with amazing bravery throughout the 
battle, lost their self-control and fled ignominiously 
like a flock of sheep. The General, in the mean- 
time, was shot through the lungs and fell from his 
horse, as his men dashed by him too intent upon 
their own safety to think of their commander. 
Braddock, overcome with a sense of his disgrace, 
wished to die upon the field, but Captain Orme and 
two American officers bore him tenderly away. He 
still continued to give his orders, and it was not 
until the remnant of his army reached the Great 
Meadows that he breathed his last — heart-broken 
but brave as of old. Only twice did he refer to the 
catastrophe, once saying to himself, " Who would 
have thought it ? " and then, a few minutes before 
he died, murmuring: ** We shall better know how 
to deal with them another time." 

The colonists were thrown into dismay by the rout 
of Braddock's forces, and visions of further aggres- 

* T/ie History of An Expedition against Fort DuQuesne. 



io8 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

sion from the French, and cruelty from the Indians, 
grew more terrible as the possible consequences of 
the defeat were discussed. Franklin was not sur- 
prised, and we can hear him saying to shocked 
Philadelphia citizens, as he wrote later in the Auto- 
biography, that the General was '* a brave man, and 
might probably have made a figure as a good officer 
in some European war. But he had too much self- 
confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of 
regular troops, and too mean a one of both Ameri- 
cans and Indians." The prophet had been vindi- 
cated, but both his patriotism and his personal 
interests prevented him from taking satisfaction in 
this fresh proof of his sagacity. The affair might, 
indeed, have proved the financial ruin of Franklin, 
for there were the waggons and horses which had 
been abandoned, and for the value of which he had 
given his personal bond to the owners. 

" Their demands," he tells us, " gave me a great deal of trouble, 
my acquainting them that the money was ready in the paymaster's 
hands, but that orders for paying it must first be obtained from Gen- 
eral Shirley, and my assuring them that I had applied to that general 
by letter ; but, he, being at a distance, an answer could not soon be 
received, and they must have patience, all this was not sufficient to 
satisfy and some began to sue me. General Shirley at length relieved 
me from this terrible situation by appointing commissioners to exam- 
ine the claims and ordering payment. They amounted to near twenty 
thousand pound, which to pay would have ruined me." 

But the possibility of succumbing to a series of 
lawsuits did not prevent the Postmaster-General 
from doing what he could to restore public confi- 
dence, and from advising that Colonel Dunbar, who 



1756] In Martial Mood 109 

led the survivors of Braddock's once stalwart band, 
should remain on the defensive until reinforced by 
sufficient colonial troops to attempt the capture of 
Fort Duquesne. Governor Morris, who was still 
fighting with the Assembly of Pennsylvania over 
that eternal question of taxing or non-taxing the 
Penn estates, agreed with this idea and warmly op- 
posed Dunbar's intention of striking his colours and 
marching to Philadelphia. But the ungallant Colo- 
nel apparently had seen enough of war; he indulged 
in many excuses, and reached the Quaker City to- 
ward the end of August. He encamped with his 
men on Society Hill, where they remained until 
October 1st, and then left for New York and Albany, 
deeply grateful for their kindly treatment at the 
hands of the inhabitants. Then it was that Frank- 
lin wrote to a friend : 

" Many more people love me now than ever did before ; for, since 
I saw you, I have been enabled to do some general services to the 
country and to the army, for which both have thanked and praised 
me, and say they love me. They say so as you used to do ; and if I 
were to ask any favours of them, they would, perhaps, as readily refuse 
me ; so that I find little real advantage in being beloved, but it 
pleases my humour." 

Governor Morris was not slow to intimate that the 
defeat of Braddock was due, in some part, to the 
failure of the Pennsylvania legislators to make 
the needful provision for the aid of the unfortunate 
General. It is recorded that when he gave out the 
news of the defeat the Governor was insulted on 
the street by indignant and unbelieving citizens who 
were to find, only too soon, that he spoke the truth. 



no Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

The Assembly now offered to appropriate for the 
King's use the sum of ;^5o,ooo, but the same old 
contention between the interests of the selfish Penns 
and the interests of the colony rendered the legisla- 
tion abortive. The Assembly stipulated that in the 
securing of the money all estates, real and personal, 
were to be taxed, '* those of the proprietaries not 
excepted." The Governor, however, insisted that 
for the word not that of only should be used, and 
thereby put a stop to the intended liberality of the 
Assembly, which refused to yield one jot to the ab- 
sentee proprietors. ** Those who would give up 
essential liberty," wrote Franklin, bravely and de- 
fiantly, ** for the sake of a little temporary safety, 
deserve neither liberty nor safety." He had ever 
been opposed to the exactions of the Penns, and he 
did much to keep his companions up to the neces- 
sary pitch of firmness. The contest wore on, and 
with the autumn came terrible Indian disturbances 
in the western part of the province — nay, nearer 
home than that — with the horrors of scalping, and 
the stealing of children. Watson records that the 
frontiersmen, fearing that the pacific policy of the 
Quakers had too much influence upon the Assembly, 
and desiring that the latter should take some meas- 
ures for their protection, adopted, " to move them 
to a livelier emotion," a ghastly expedient. It was 
nothing less than to send on to Philadelphia the 
bodies of a family murdered by the Indians. 
" These actually reached Philadelphia in the winter, 
like frozen venison from their mountains — were 
paraded through our city, and finally set down be- 



1756] In Martial Mood in 

fore the legislative hall." When the multitude and 
their uncanny exhibit reached the State House, the 
headquarters of the Assembly, perhaps Franklin 
calmly looked out of window at the throng, and 
foresaw that help was at hand. The province must 
be defended — on that he was resolved — and he had 
taken care that the parsimony of the proprietaries and 
the absurdity of their demands should be well venti- 
lated in England. It was a wise move. The Penns 
were frightened into parting with a little of their 
money, and sent an order to their Receiver-General 
in Pennsylvania to add iI"5ooo to whatever sum 
might be given by the Assembly for the defence of 
the province." That body appropriated ;^6o,cxDO, 
and by way of proclaiming a temporary truce with 
the proprietaries waived (under protest, however) 
the immediate question of taxing their estates. 

Franklin was always reasonable ; he resented as 
much as ever the claims of the proprietaries, but 
was now ready to leave the question in abeyance 
until measures had been taken to protect the prov- 
ince. He was himself appointed one of the commis- 
sioners for expending the money, and worked with 
all his energy toward the formation of a militia 
force. For the latter purpose it was necessary to 
have the sanction of the Assembly, and it is at this 
point that the statesmanship of the man comes again 
to the fore. The Quaker influence in the legislature 
was still important, and the passage of a militia bill 
was not likely to meet with favour in non-resistance 

* With characteristic meanness, however, the Penns provided that 
this money was to be obtained from arrears of quit-rents. 



112 Benjamin Franklin tnss- 

circles. So he adroitly drafted a measure which 
provided for the organisation of volunteer compan- 
ies of defenders, but expressly stipulated that nothing 
in the act should have any power to affect in the 
least " those of the inhabitants of the province who 
are conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, 
either in their liberties, persons, or estates. " Polite 
mention was made in the preamble of *' the people 
called Quakers, who, though they do not, as the 
world is now circumstanced, condemn the use of 
arms in others, yet are principled against bearing 
arms themselves." It was pointed out that ** to 
make any law to compel them thereto against their 
consciences, would be not only to violate a funda- 
mental in our constitution, and be a direct breach 
of our charter of privileges, but would also in effect 
be to commence persecution." The bill was passed 
without great difficulty, owing to the Chesterfieldian 
courtesy which it exhibited toward the opposition, 
and it is probable that many a Quaker slept more 
soundly thereafter because of its adoption. It was 
all very well to refuse to bear arms, but the peace 
theory — an admirable theory in itself, yet far in ad- 
vance of the times — could not keep away the toma- 
hawk. The community of Friends, being but 
human, realised as vividly as did the Episcopalians, 
or anyone else, the danger from the West. 

Not content with helping in other directions, the 
editor of the Gazette wrote a '* Dialogue between 
X, Y, and Z, Concerning the Present State of Affairs 
in Pennsylvania," wherein the objections against a 
militia were answered and disposed of by means of 



1756] In Martial Mood 113 

the conversation between the aforesaid Messrs. X, 
Y, and Z. Mr. X championed the Assembly bill, 
and, after naming its virtues, concluded by grand- 
iloquently crying to Messrs. Y and Z: 

" O my friends, let us on this occasion cast from us all these little 
party views, and consider ourselves as Englishmen and Pennsylva- 
nians. Let us think only of the service of ourj^^mg, the honour and 
safety of our country, and vengeance on itsniurdering enemies. If 
good be done, what imports it by whpm it is done ? The glory of 
serving and saving others is superior to the advantage of being served 
or secured. Let us resolutely and generously unite in our country's 
cause, in which to die is the sweetest of all deaths, and may the God 
of armies bless our honest endeavours." 

There is in this apostrophe a fervour, a convincing 
power, and a lofty patriotism difficult to excel. No 
wonder that the ** Dialogue " had " great effect." - 
Now the view shifts as we watch the theatre of 
Franklin's activities. He has posed as a legislator, 
as a financier, and as a writer, in this work of organ- 
ising public defence, and next, inirabile dictii, he is 
to play the soldier, and play him well. Colonel 
Franklin ! The title has an odd sound, but capitally 
was it worn by one to whom might be given the 
degree of master — not jack — of many trades. 

" While the several companies in the city and country were form- 
ing, and learning their exercise," he writes, " the Governor [Morris] 
prevailed with me to take charge of our Northwestern frontier, which 
was infested by the enemy, and provide for the defence of the inhabi- 
tants by raising troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this 
military business, tho' I did not conceive myself well qualified for it. 
He gave me a commission with full powers, and a parcel of blank 
commissions for ofificers, to be given to whom I thought fit." 

* Published in the Gazette of December i8, 1755. 
8 



114 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

It was time that something was done. The Mora- 
vian village of Gnadenhutten, Northampton County, 
had been destroyed by the Indians, who killed the 
inhabitants, and the dwellers in that whole section 
of the country were in terror. The new warrior was 
not slow in raising men, of whom he secured over 
five hundred, nor did he forget to appoint his son 
an aide-de-camp. Then they all set out right val- 
iantly to march to Bethlehem, the Moravian strong- 
hold, where they arrived after a cold, unpleasant 
time of it, but without mishap. Franklin found the 
town in a good condition of defence, for the massacre 
at Gnadenhutten had stirred the people to a keen 
sense of danger. The principal buildings were forti- 
fied by a stockade ; arms and ammunition had been 
brought from New York ; there were paving-stones 
in the houses, for use upon the heads of invading 
Indians ; the Moravian brethren had organised a 
guard of sentinels. 

" It was the beginning of January," says our Colonel, " when we 
set out upon this business of building forts. I sent one detachment 
toward the Minisink, with instructions to erect one for the security 
of that upper part of the country, and another to the lower part, with 
similar instructions ; and I concluded to go myself with the rest of 
my force to Gnadenhut, where a fort was thought more immediately 
necessary. The Moravians procured me five waggons for our tools, 
stores, baggage, etc. Just before we left Bethlehem, eleven farmers, 
who had been driven from their plantations by the Indians, came to 
me requesting a supply of firearms, that they might go back and fetch 
off their cattle. I gave them each a gun with suitable ammunition. 
We had not marched many miles before it began to rain, and it con- 
tinued raining all day ; there were no habitations on the road, to 
shelter us, till we arrived near night at the house of a German, where, 
and in his barn, we were all huddled together, as wet as water could 



1756] In Martial Mood 115 

make us. It was well we were not attacked in our march, for our 
arms were of the most ordinary sort, and our men could not keep 
their gun-locks dry. The Indians are dextrous in contrivances for 
that purpose, which we had not. They met that day the eleven poor 
farmers above-mentioned, and killed ten of them. The one who 
escaped informed, that his and his companions' guns would not go 
off, the priming being wet with the rain." 

This was all dangerous enough, and bodily dis- 
agreeable, but the commander and his men never 
flinched. Upon their arrival at the desolate Gnad- 
enhutten, huts were made out of boards procured 
from a neighbouring saw-mill; the dead, who ** had 
been half-interred by the country people," were 
buried more effectually, and a fort of palisades, cut 
from pine trees, was erected in a week of working 
days. There were intermediate days when it rained 
so hard that the volunteers could not do anything. 
" On the days they worked they were good-natured 
and cheerful, and, with the consciousness of having 
done a good day's work, they spent the evening 
jollily; but on our idle days they were mutinous 
and quarrelsome, finding fault with their pork, the 
bread, etc., and in continual ill-humour " — a circum- 
stance which reminded the Colonel of the sea-captain 

whose rule it was to keep his men constantly at 
work ; and, when his mate once told him that they 
had done everything, and there was nothing further 
to employ them about, ' OJi,' says he, 'make them 
scour the anchor. 

Franklin's presence was now desired at Philadel- 
phia, where the Assembly was about to meet, with 
every prospect of further trouble from Governor 
Morris. As the three frontier forts were finished; 



II 6 Benjamin Franklin [1755- 

and as a New England officer, Colonel Clapham, 
was willing to take command of Fort Allen, the 
soldier-philosopher-printer returned home, after 
commissioning Clapham before the garrison, and 
introducing him as one who was much more fit than 
himself for the colonelcy. 

The martial spirit was in full swing when Franklin 
once again saw his adopted city. A large regiment 
played at soldiering, and no sooner had he put in an 
appearance than he was asked to be its colonel. 
This time he accepted, and could do so with a clear 
conscience, for he had shown the true military in- 
stinct upon that risky little journey to Northampton 
County. No battle had been fought, but there had 
been work to do, and the Colonel had done it ad- 
mirably."^ What more appropriate, therefore, than 
to command the Philadelphia volunteers ? 

"I forget how many companies we had," he says, "but we 
paraded about twelve hundred well-looking men, with a company of 
artillery who had been furnished with six brass field-pieces, which 
they had become so expert in the use of as to fire twelve times in a 
minute. The first time I reviewed my regiment they accompanied 
me to my house and would salute me with some rounds fired before 
my door, which shook down and broke several glasses of my electri- 
cal apparatus. And my new honour proved not much less brittle ; 
for all our commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the law 
in England." 

An officer with an electrical machine — that tells 
the tale of Franklin's versatility. The tastes of the 
savant set off by the flashing of arms ! What won- 

* Gnadenhutten, sad to relate, was again destroyed by the Indians 
in the following November, 1756. 



1756] In Martial Mood 117 

der that he found himself the most popular man in 
town, or that he was even asked to attempt the 
capturing of Fort Duquesne ? Many a citizen 
would have lost his head as a result of this adula- 
tion, and then, by launching forth still further into 
the uncertain sea of war, might have lost likewise 
his reputation, and his life. The" little postmaster " 
was not of these ; he could procure waggons for 
an army, give valuable advice to a stubborn general, 
build forts, and command a local regiment, but, as 
he shrewdly knew, it did not follow that he could 
cope with the French in the wilderness. As it was, 
the glamour of militia life, the parade, the fuss and 
feathers, must have wearied him a bit, and there 
was one occasion when, as he confesses, it decidedly 
annoyed him. 

He was about to set out for Virginia, on a postal 
inspection, and had just mounted his horse, when 
up to the house rode the officers of the regiment, 
between thirty and forty handsomely uniformed 
warriors. They had arranged to escort their colonel 
out of town. The recipient of this honour was sur- 
prised, and a " good deal chagrined " at their 
appearance, hating to be put in so spectacular a 
position, but there was nothing to be done but 
smile and bear it all politely. More trials were in 
store for the modest man. No sooner had the caval- 
cade begun to move than the officers drew their 
swords and kept them drawn until they had seen 
their beloved leader safely out of the city. Such an 
exhibition of ceremony was absurdly pretentious for 
provincial Philadelphia, however matter-of-fact it 



ii8 Benjamin Franklin [1756 

might appear now, and Franklin must have had 
hard work to keep his temper. No one, even 
though he be a philosopher, likes to be made ridic- 
ulous. 

Of course the incident was commented upon, and, 
of course, an officious correspondent wrote a full ac- 
count of it to Thomas Penn, doubtless exaggerating 
the scene and representing the colonel so unwillingly 
honoured in the light of a would-be dictator. 
Whereat Mr. Penn became angry, declaring that 
neither he, when he visited the province, nor any of 
his governors had been the recipient of such a mili- 
tary escort — an escort, according to him, only due 
to princes of the blood royal. Libelled Franklin ! 
He was the last man on earth to exact attentions 
due a royal duke, for, although lie liked the praise 
and consideration of his fellow-men, he never cared 
for flummery or ostentation. Nay, the proprietary 
went so far as to insinuate that the Postmaster- 
General of the colonies wished to take upon himself 
the reigns of provincial government, and he even 
tried, though unsuccessfully, to deprive him of his 
office. Yet no amount of abuse could dim the lustre 
of Benjamin Franklin's achievements. He had 
nobly impersonated his several characters in the 
drama of colonial life, and not a hundred Thomas 
Penns could stop his onward progress. What mat- 
tered it, after all, if the officers drew their swords 
and gave to their commander a stately exit ? No 
one in all the provinces deserved it more. 




THOMAS PENN. 



FROM A PAINTING OWNED BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND COPIED BY 
M. I. NAYLOR FROM THE PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF MAJOR DUGALD STUART. 



6 ^^W^i 




M 


M 


^^^j^ 



CHAPTER V 

A BATTLE WITH THE PENNS 
1756-1762 







RANKLIN might soon relinquish his 
colonelcy, and all the pomps and 
trappings, such as they were, of a 
provincial militia, yet none the less 
was he to shine as an intrepid fighter 
who would win a glorious victory. This time the 
warfare would be on constitutional lines, with Rich- 
ard and Thomas Penn, the proprietaries of Pennsyl- 
vania, as the powerful enemy, and with the inevitable 
question of taxation as the bone of contention. For 
some years the sordid controversy had agitated the 
province, frequently paralysing needed legislation, 
and reaching such a stage that its continuance threat- 
ened nothing less than ruin to the colony. While 
the Assembly was disputing the arrogant assumption 
of the Penns, who wished practically to make of 
themselves feudal lords, and while the subservient 
governors of the latter were trying to uphold the 
pretension, the public business dragged, and the 
poor Pennsylvanians stood more and more in danger 

119 



I20 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

of Indian invasion and destruction. The situation, 
which is interesting as we look back at it, in show- 
ing the constantly growing spirit of American defi- 
ance to unjust exaction, must have been one of the 
most solid discomfort. 

So irksome, indeed, did the state of affairs be- 
come to Governor Morris that in 1756 he resigned 
his office. One of the closing orders of his adminis- 
tration was to forbid Colonel Franklin's regiment 
from indulging in an artillery salute; whereupon the 
indignant officers (we know not whether the com- 
mander was amongst them) repaired to a tavern, 
where they drank down their disappointment right 
royally to the significant sentiment, '' The speedy 
arrival of a new Governor." When the new Gov- 
ernor did arrive, in the person of Captain William 
Denny, great was the rejoicing, and gallantly was 
he welcomed by the learned Colonel and his cohort. 
The regiment was drawn up on Second Street to 
salute him ; there were bonfires, firing of cannon, 
and ringing of bells. The following day the city 
authorities gave a handsome dinner in his honour, 
at which, we need hardly say, the beloved Colonel 
had an important seat. More than this, the Gov- 
ernor presented to Franklin, before the assembled 
company, the Copley gold medal awarded him for 
his scientific researches by the Royal Society, and 
the new incumbent was pleased to accompany the 
gift with some remarks highly flattering to the char- 
acter and attainments of the Postmaster-General of 
the colonies. 

The Captain was, in fine, trying his hand at di- 



1762J A Battle with the Penns 121 

plomacy; he knew that the recipient of the Copley 
medal happened to be not only a savant but likewise 
the most powerful citizen of Pennsylvania, and he 
determined to propitiate him to the utmost. Per- 
haps, too, he had heard of the great man's thrifti- 
ness, and thought to win him over to the side of the 
proprietaries by delicately veiled bribery. Certain 
it is that the Governor watched his chance, and 
\\'hen the solids of the dinner had been disposed of, 
and the guests were settling down to the guzzling 
of wine — the thing about the entertainment which 
some of them loved the most feelingly — Denny led 
the intended victim into an adjoining room. Here 
he ingenuously informed Franklin that he had been 
advised by his friends in England to cultivate a 
friendship with him ** as one who was capable of 
giving him the best advice," and of *' contributing 
most effectually to the making his administration 
easy," and the speaker adroitly expressed his readi- 
ness to render his new friend every service that might 
be in his power. We can fancy Denny standing 
there, suave, conciliatory, watchful of the effect of 
his words, while Franklin, with those calm, unread- 
able eyes of his, gazes peacefully as a child at the 
telltale face of the Governor, who, thinking himself 
a paragon of depth, must have been fathomed in a 
moment by his more plainly dressed companion. 

" He said much to me, also," relates the latter, in the closing 
pages of the too quickly ended Autobiography, " of the proprietor's* 
good disposition towards the province, and of the advantage it might 

* Thomas Penn, rather than the other proprietor, Richard, is here 
meant. 



122 Benjamin I'lanklin \ns^^- 

be (o us all, :iM(I (o nic in piu ticiilar, il (lie opposil ioii llial had btn-ii 
so lon{i[ coiiliimrd Id his incasiiics was dropl, aiul hajiiiony restored 
between him and the people ; in effeetinj^' whieh, il was thoujdit no 
one eould be more serviceable than myself ; and I might depend on 
adequate acknt)wledgments and recompenses, etc." 

The diners had been quick to perceive the retire- 
ment of the Governor and tlie Colonel, and doid:)t- 
less there were many vvhisperin^ii^s on the subject, 
with a thousantl picdictions as to the outcome of so 
extraordinary an interview. As the quests ^rew 
more mellow they became L^eneroiis, and sent in to 
the absentees a decanter of choice Madeira, to add 
life to their deliberations. Denny attacked the ^ift 
without delay, and the more wine he drank the 
lari^er became his promises and the more fervid his 
protestations of friendship. J^'ranklin, on the other 
hand, appears to have left his ILxcellency free to 
wrestle with the decanter, and to have kept himself 
cool and clear-headed. Although he could si[) his 
Madeira as well as the next man, he chose the oc- 
casions, and this was not one of them. The Gov- 
ernor had to be answered ; his hints at recompense 
must be repulsed. So the Philadeli)hian replied, 
very politely but firmly, that his circumstances, 
thanks to God, were such as to make proprietary 
favours unnecessary to him, and that he could not 
possibly accept of any; that, however, he had no 
personal enmity a^i^ainst the proprietors, and that, 
whenever the public measures they proposed should 
appear to be for the <^ood of the people, " no one 
should espouse and forward them more zealously " 
than himself. He was much obliged for the regard 



i7''2\ A J:;aUlc with the Pcnns 123 

of the Governor, who might rely on his doing all in 
his power to make the new administration as easy as 
possible, but it was to be hoped that his Excellency 
" had not brought with him the same unfortunate 
instruction his predecessor had been hampered 
with." Whereby the Governor was given to under- 
stand that if he came to Pennsylvania to champion 
the disputed claims of the proprietary, the fight was 
still on. 

Of course it was part of D^mny's official duty to 
insist on these very claims, and it was not long, 
therefore, before he became engaged in the custom- 
ary tilts with the Assembly. His position was un- 
enviable in the extreme. 

" // he refused to obey the proprietary instructions, he wouM t>e 
liable to pr/secution, while if he refuse'! to obey the mandates of the 
Assembly, his salary wouM be withheld. Proprietary governors thtw 
hafi to be indigent or fond of a^ntroversy. In fa/;t it ha/\ l>een a 
practice of the Assembly V) send to the governor favourite measures 
for his approbation, and at the same time attach to the \n]\ a resolu- 
tion appropriating his salary. When the governor refused assent his 
salary was of course withheld." * 

So the fight began again merrily, and Franklin, 
carrying a pen dipped in gall rather than a colonel's 
sword, could be seen in the front of the fray. I lis 
personal relations were cordial with Denny, exactly 
as they had been with Morris, and many was the con- 
versation which the two men, enemies politically, 
had on polite literature and kindred topics. From 
the new Governor was it that the Philadelphian 

* Ili'Jory of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania^ by William 
Robert Shepherd, Ph.D. 



124 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

learned of the success of his whilom friend, James 
Ralph, who had fared better in prose than in poeti- 
cal writing, and who had secured a pension for ser- 
vices rendered a grateful government. 

Finally a crisis came in the civic feud. Governor 
Denny refused to sign a bill granting ;£'6o,ooo for 
the King's use, from an excise tax upon wine and 
other spirits. Some ;^ 10,000 of the money was to 
be subject to the orders of the Earl of Loudoun, 
who had been appointed to the command of the 
British forces in North America. Lord Loudoun 
had come to America for the purpose of organising 
a permanent army (to carry out what was practically 
a plan to place the colonies under military rule), and 
one of the purposes of the proposed Assembly 
measure was to aid him in properly defending the 
province from the still-threatening Indians. The 
bill did not bring up the dangerous point of taxing 
the Penn estates, yet, for all that, Denny withheld 
assent on the ground that an approval would be 
contrary to his " instructions." This was the last 
straw. The Assembly now resolved to send over to 
the home government a remonstrance setting forth 
the strained, not to say dangerous, state of affairs, 
and the " pernicious consequences to the British in- 
terest," and to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, ** if, 
contrary to their charters and laws, they were to be 
governed by proprietary instructions " — a proceed- 
ing to which the legislature was the more moved 
from the threat of the Governor to submit the points 
of this interminable controversy to the King. 

Who so well qualified to carry over the remon- 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 125 

strance as the subtle yet determined Franklin ? 
His name at once suggested itself, and he was asked 
to take the uncomfortable voyage to England. Ven- 
erable Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Assembly, was 
asked likewise to assist in the mission, but age and 
infirmity made him averse to the journey — no child's 
play for an old man — and in the end Franklin, after 
trying unsuccessfully to induce Norris to go alone, 
consented to undertake the patriotic business. He 
was ready to go whenever the Assembly should think 
fit to require his service, he said, and probably he 
was not half sorry at the opportunity. Why should 
he have been ? 

As the unexpected so often happened in the life 
of the newly-commissioned agent for the Assembly, 
it seems quite natural that interesting things should 
develop before he set sail. 

" I had agreed with Captain Morris, of the paquet at New York, 
for my passage, and my stores were put on board, when Lord Lou- 
doun arrived at Philadelphia, expressly, as he told me, to endeavour 
an accommodation between the Governor and Assembly, that his 
Majesty's service might not be obstructed by their dissensions. Ac- 
cordingly, he desired the Governor and myself to meet him, that he 
might hear what was to be said on both sides. We met and discussed 
the business. In behalf of the Assembly, T urged all the various 
arguments that maybe found in the public papers of that time, which 
were of my writing, and are printed with the minutes of the Assem- 
bly ; and the Governor pleaded his instructions ; the bond he had 
given to observe them, and his ruin if he disobeyed, yet seemed not 
unwilling to hazard himself if Lord Loudoun would advise it. This 
his lordship did not chuse to do, though I once thought I had nearly 
prevailed with him to do it ; but finally he rather chose to urge the 
compliance of the Assembly ; and he entreated me to use my endeav- 
ours with them for that purpose, declaring that he would spare none 
of the King's troops for the defence of our frontiers, and that, if we 



126 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

did not continue to provide for that defence ourselves, they must 
remain exposed to the enemy." 

It has been complained of Franklin that he was a 
** trimmer." He was nothing so craven, but he 
knew that by sometimes giving way, in part, to the 
exigencies of the moment the concession could be 
eventually repaired, and a substantial victory pro- 
cured. Thus did he reason now, and he induced 
the Assembly to draw up another supply bill. This 
bill was conformable to the Governor's instructions, 
but asserted strenuously that no rights were relin- 
quished in the compromise, the exercise of them 
being only suspended *' through force." Where- 
upon Captain Denny signed the new measure, and 
the noble Earl (who doubtless looked upon Ameri- 
cans as a lot of troublesome, uncouth, quarrelsome 
bantams) returned his profuse thanks to Franklin 
and took unto himself all the credit for the action 
of the legislature. Then the real mediator bethought 
him of his packet — and lo ! it had sailed away with 
all his sea-stores. 

There was no remedy but to journey to New 
York, there to wait for the departure of the next 
vessel. This Franklin accordingly did, early in 
April, 1757, in company with his son, who was 
to assist him in England. But he was destined to 
linger some weary weeks before he could get away 
from port. There were packets in the harbour when 
father and son reached New York ; one of them, it was 
reported, would sail in a short time. A ' ' short time ' ' 
seemed too vague a date for the precise-minded 
Postmaster-General, and he made haste to inquire 



i:^'2] A Battle with the Penns 127 

of Lord Loudoun (who had returned from Philadel- 
phia before him, and who always arranged the time 
of sailing), on exactly what day the packet was to 
leave. " I have given out," replied his lordship, 
*' that she is to sail on Saturday next; but I may 
let you know, entre nous, that if you are there by 
Monday morning, you will be in time, but do not 
delay longer." Imagine the clearance of modern 
vessels being regulated in such a dolce far niente 
fashion. But worse remains to be chronicled. It 
was toward the end of June before the impatient 
Franklin could leave New York, for the captains of 
the packets had orders to wait for Loudoun's letters, 

which were always to be ready to-morrow. ' ' What 
mattered it if anxious passengers walked the decks 
until their feet were sore, and if commerce suffered ? 
My lord's letters were never ready, and until they 
were, the ships were to remain at anchorage. No 
wonder that petty tyrannies like these tended to 
disturb the affectionate relations between America 
and the mother country. 

Very polite was the General of the forces to Frank- 
lin, but those letters remained unpenned. 

" Going myself one morning to pay my respects," writes the weary 
waiter, " I found in his antechamber one Innis, a messenger of 
Philadelphia, who had come from thence express with a paquet from 
Governor Denny for the General. He delivered to me some letters 
from my friends there, which occasioned my enquiring when he was 
to return, and where he lodged, that I might send some letters by 
him. He told me he was ordered to call to-morrow at nine for 
the General's answer to the Governor, and should set off immediately. 
I put my letters into his hands the same day. A fortnight after I 
met him again in the same place. ' So, you are soon returned, 



128 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

Innis?' ''Returned ! no, I am not ^wz<? yet.' ' How so?* ' I have 
called here by order every morning these two weeks past for his lord- 
ship's letter and it is not yet ready.' ' Is it possible, when he is so 
great a writer? for I see him constantly at his escritoire ' 'Yes,' 
says Innis, ' but he is like St. George on the signs, always on horse- 
back and never rides on.'' " 

At last the General determined to ride on, and 
not to stop until he had won a mighty victory 
against the French. He had planned an expedition 
to attack Louisburg, and so set sail, with a consider- 
able fleet, on the 20th of June, intending to make a 
rendezvous at Halifax. The worst of the matter, so 
far as it concerned the would-be transatlantic travel- 
lers, was that the packets were ordered to proceed 
with the fleet until such time as Lord Loudoun had 
prepared those tardy letters. The whole history of 
British rule in the American colonies offers no more 
exasperating exhibition of stupid selfishness. The 
passengers, too, were afraid that the ships might 
slip away at any moment, and for six weeks they 
remained at Sandy Hook, not daring, as a rule, to 
go ashore, and walking up and down the decks 
wondering when the moment of deliverance would 
arrive. If Franklin kept his temper, as he seems to 
have done, his was indeed an angelic calmness. 
When the fleet, with the General and his army on 
board, actually got off, the unfortunate packets 
followed obediently in the wake of his Excellency. 

" We were out five days before we got a letter with leave to part, 
and then our ship quitted the fleet and steered for England. The 
other two packets he still detained, carried them with him to Halifax, 
where he stayed some time to exercise the men in sham attacks upon 
sham forts, then altered his mind as to besieging Louisburg, and re- 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 129 

turned to New York, with all his troops, together with the two 
paquets above mentioned, and all their passengers ! " 

It is said that Lord Loudoun decided to abandon 
the attack on Louisburg upon hearing that there 
was one more ship in the French fleet than in his 
own. A fine man to attempt the crushing of French 
power in America! When Pitt became Prime Min- 
ister of England, he was shrewd enough to recall an 
incompetent soldier from whom he could never get 
any satisfactory information as to military opera- 
tions. 

The action, or rather the non-action, of Lord 
Loudoun regarding Franklin's claim for money due 
on provisions supplied Braddock did not tend to 
increase the admiration of the Postmaster-General. 
The accounts for this transaction were presented, 
examined, and found to be correct, and his lordship 
promised to issue the necessary order on the pay- 
master for their settlement. Franklin, who was 
not likely to forget the matter, called often, but was 
as often put off with excuses, until the General finally 
said he had, on better consideration, concluded ** not 
to mix his accounts with those of his predecessors." 
*' When in England," he cheerfully told the credi- 
tor, ** you have only to exhibit your accounts at the 
Treasury, and you will be paid immediately." This 
was truly exasperating, particularly as Franklin had 
been put to much extra expense by his undesired 
stay at New York, and he was not slow to intimate 
to the noble lord the injustice of the latter's decision. 
He also emphasised the fact that he had charged no 
commission for advancing the money, whereat Lou- 



130 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

doun exclaimed, scoffingly: ** You must not think 
of persuading us that you are no gainer; we under- 
stand better those affairs, and know that everyone 
concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the 
doing it, to fill his own pockets." Franklin stoutly 
denied that he had made a farthing out of the pro- 
visions, but His Excellency (who doubtless smuggled 
his own little percentage out of contractors, and who 
would have made an ideal political " boss " had he 
lived to-day) remained unconvinced. And the 
debt ? It continued to be a debt. 

There was always the element of adventure in the 
career of our hero, nor did it fail him when he crossed 
the ocean this second time. The ship was chased 
by privateers, whom she outsailed, and when just at 
her journey's end, off Falmouth, narrowly escaped 
destruction. The captain thought that, by making 
a good run in the night, Falmouth harbour might 
be reached the next morning. 

"We had a watchman placed in the bow to whom they often 
called, ' Look well out before there' and he as often answered, 'Ay, 
ay,' but perhaps had his eyes shut, and was half-asleep at the time, 
they sometimes answering, as is said, mechanically ; for he did not 
see a light just before us, which had been hid by the studding-sails 
from the man at the helm, and from the rest of the watch, but by an 
accidental yaw of the ship was discovered, and occasioned a great 
alarm, we being very near it, the light appearing to me as big as a 
cart-wheel. It was midnight, and our captain fast asleep ; but Cap- 
tain Kennedy, jumping upon deck, and seeing the danger, ordered 
the ship to wear round, all sails standing — an operation dangerous 
to the masts, but it carried us clear, and we escaped shipwreck, for 
we were running right upon the rocks on which the light-house was 
erected." 

It was in the latter part of July, 1757, that Frank- 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 131 

lin and his son reached London. After a brief stay 
with the learned Peter ColHnson, at whose house he 
met many distinguished men, who called to pay 
their devoirs to the scientist from the New World, 
he obtained comfortable lodgings near the Strand, 
set up a carriage, that he might the better support 
his dignity as agent for Pennsylvania, and then pro- 
ceeded to the all-important business of battling with 
the Penns. Old times, however, were not forgotten 
in the stress of politics; he was glad to see James 
Ralph once again, and found nothing more pleas- 
antly stimulating to his memory than a visit to 
Watts's printing-house near Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
where he had worked during part of his first London 
experience. The theatrical feature of the return to 
the printing-house was the discovery there of his old 
press, and his drinking " Success to Printing," in a 
gallon of beer shared with two journeymen. Well 
might he toast a trade which had been of such aid 
to him, and well, too, might he rejoice at the con- 
trast between the Benjamin of 1757 and the Ben of 
the past. 

It was suggested to Franklin, by one of his friends 
(Dr. Fothergill), that he should defer putting the 
complaints of the Pennsylvania legislature before 
the Government until a personal interview should be 
had with the proprietaries, " who might possibly be 
induced by the interposition and persuasion of some 
private friends to accommodate matters amicably." 
In the meantime Lord Granville, President of the 
Council, sent for the agent, received him with great 
civility, questioned him as to the state of affairs in 



132 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

America, and finally burst out with this British 
assertion : 

" You Americans, sir, have wrong ideas of the nature of your con- 
stitution ; you contend that the King's instructions to his governors 
are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard 
them at your discretion. But those instructions are not like the 
pocket instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating 
his conduct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn 
up by judges learned in the laws ; they are then considered, debated, 
and perhaps amended in Council, after which they are signed by the 
King. They are then, so far as they relate to you, the law of the 
land, for the King is the Legislator of the Colonies^ 

In other words, Granville would treat the colonies 
as he might some barbaric, conquered provinces un- 
fit to legislate for themselves. 'T was John Bull in 
his most short-sighted, least prepossessing mood. 

If Franklin felt anger in his heart he was too wise 
to show any heat ; he replied politely, but strongly, 
and to the purpose.* This idea of government by 
instruction, he told his lordship, was new doctrine. 
He had always understood from the charters of 
the colonies that the laws were to be made by the 
Assemblies, " to be presented, indeed, to the King 
for his royal assent, but that being once given the 
King could not repeal or alter them." And *' as 
the Assemblies could not make permanent laws with- 
out his assent, so neither could he make a law for 
them without theirs." Granville assured Franklin 
that he was totally mistaken in such a theory, but 
the American remained firm in his conviction, and 
felt so uneasy at his lordship's views that he went 

* See the brief narrative supplementary to the Autobiography^ writ- 
ten during the last year of Franklin's life. 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 133 

home to his lodgings and wrote down the whole 
conversation. If the principle that the King was 
the legislator of the colonies should be endorsed at 
court, what a series of misfortunes must be in store 
for the provinces ! 

Then came the meeting with the two proprietors 
at the house of Thomas Penn, in Spring Garden. 
The feelings of the brothers as they faced their 
enemy, without whose opposition they might have 
found life the pleasanter andPennsylvanians the more 
submissive, may be understood by the least imagin- 
ative reader. The agent was determined to gain his 
point, while the Penns, on their side, were equally 
determined to retain their powers intact and to 
budge not an inch from the feudal platform of rights 
upon which they stood. On the surface, however, 
all was peaceful, with a hypocritical air, on the part 
of the proprietors, of being willing to do whatever 
was just in the momentous matter. *' The conver- 
sation at first consisted of mutual declarations of dis- 
position to reasonable accommodations," reports 
Franklin, " but I suppose each party had its own 
ideas of what should be meant by reasonable. '' 

When the real questions at issue came to be dis- 
cussed the veneer of politeness vanished from the 
features of the Penns; they grew obstinate and 
arrogant. 

"The proprietaries justified their conduct as well as they could 
and I the Assembly's. We now appeared very wide, and so far 
from each other in our opinions as to discourage all hope of agree- 
ment. However, it was concluded that I should give them the 
heads of our complaints in writing, and they promised then to con- 
sider them.' 



134 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

The " heads of complaint " which the agent drew 
up set forth that the Assembly of Pennsylvania, 
having the right to make laws under its charter, was 
practically deprived of that power by the ** instruc- 
tions " of the proprietaries; that the Assembly, 
having the right to raise or withhold supplies, had 
that right interfered with by the self-same " instruc- 
tions " ; that the proprietary estates should be taxed 
like other estates in the province ; and that these 
several injustices should be remedied by the pro- 
prietors aforesaid. It was waste of time to make 
out this complaint; the Penns had no intention of 
heeding it ; their one idea was to gain time, shilly- 
shally, and so end by doing nothing. Thus they put 
the paper into the hands of their solicitor, Ferdinand 
John Paris, who managed all their law business, 
and who wrote the messages, pacific or otherwise, 
which they were wont to send to the Assembly. 

" He was a proud, angry man, and as I had occasionally in the 
answers of the Assembly treated his papers with some severity, they 
being really weak in point of argument and haughty in expression, he 
had conceived a mortal enmity to me, which discovering itself wher- 
ever we met, I declined the proprietary's proposal that he and I 
should discuss the heads of complaint between our two selves [i. e., 
between Paris and Franklin] and refused treating with anyone but 
them. They then by his advice put the paper into the hands of the 
Attorney and Solicitor-General for their opinion and counsel upon it, 
where it lay unanswered a year wanting eight days, during which 
time I made frequent demands of an answer from the proprietaries, 
but without obtaining any other than that they had not yet received 
the opinion of the Attorney and Solicitor-General. What it was 
when they did receive it I never learnt, for they did not communicate 
it to me, but sent a long message to the Assembly drawn and signed 
by Paris, reciting my paper, complaining of its want of formality, as 



n62] A Battle with the Penns 135 

a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy justification of their con- 
duct, adding that they should be willing to accommodate matters if 
the Assembly would send out some person of candour to treat with 
them for that purpose, intimating thereby that I was not such." 

The offender concluded that the alleged rudeness 
v/as, probably, his failure to address the Penns as 
'* True and Absolute Proprietaries of the Province 
of Pennsylvania." 

But Franklin has taken us on too rapidly in his 
little narrative, and has forgotten to tell us that after 
his first skirmish with the two landlords he sank 
down with an illness which lasted eight long, weary 
weeks. He describes his colds and fever, however, 
in a letter to Mrs. Franklin, and relates how the 
doctor cupped him on the back of the head, and 
dosed him with so much bark that he " began to 
abhor it." Then came health again, and with it the 
determination to fight the Penns to the bitter end. 
He tried to obtain an audience with Mr. Pitt, now 
Prime Minister, but failed; he began, with his son, 
to arrange an " Historical Review " of the long- 
standing contest between the governors and the As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania; and he bided his time. 
His fame in the magic field of electricity made for 
him hosts of friends in England, and as he was no 
lover of solitude he was quick to seize the chances 
of social relaxation which came, as it were, to his 
unpretentious door. His pleasures were many and 
innocent. He put up an electrical machine at his 
lodgings, he dined with the learned, dabbled in 
music, heard Handel play, delighted in the acting 
of Garrick, studied, wrote, and visited Cambridge 



13^ Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

University, where he was made much of by the 
Chancellor and the lesser dignitaries. A little later 
he would receive a degree from the University of 
St. Andrew,^ and then Dr. Franklin would pass a 
few pleasant weeks in Scotland. His was, indeed, 
one of those happy spirits wherein great capacity 
for work was blended with an equal capacity for en- 
joyment. Furthermore, he had the faculty of doing 
the work and procuring the enjoyment almost at 
the same moment. 

While Franklin was keeping those twinkling eyes 
of his upon the proprietaries, events unexpectedly 
favourable to his cause were happening in Pennsyl- 
vania. Chief among them was the consent of the 
now thoroughly tired-out and exasperated Governor 
Denny to a bill taxing the Penn estates. He was 
acting in radical defiance of those '* instructions," 
but the man was only human; the warfare carried 
on by the Assembly had become more bitter; his 
salary was long in arrears, and his patience, never 
remarkable in quantity, had become exhausted. 
When the Penns heard of this surrender they de- 
termined to dismiss Denny from his post, and re- 
solved to keep their decision secret until a successor 
was appointed. f The agent from Pennsylvania was, 
however, entirely too astute a diplomat to miss so 
important a piece of news, and no sooner had he 
learned of the proprietors* intention than he wrote 



* Before he left England Franklin received the degree of Doctor 
of Laws from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. 

f James Hamilton, who had once before been governor of the 
province, finally succeeded Denny. 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 137 

of it to his wife, with a gentle hint that she might 
spread the report far and wide. 

The action of Governor Denny changed the battle- 
ground of the Assembly-Penn contest, while it added 
a hundred-fold to the bitterness of the strife. Per- 
sonal appeals to the proprietaries were now of no 
use ; the controversy was to be brought before the 
Privy Council, which august body was to decide 
whether or not the bill signed by Denny and ob- 
jected to by his masters should be recommended for 
the royal sanction. This measure granted to his 
Majesty the sum of ;^ 100,000, and provided for 
striking the same in bills of credit, etc., ** by a tax 
on all estates, real and personal." It goes without 
the saying that the Penn brothers, who only loved 
Pennsylvania for the money they could make out of 
her, looked with jaundiced eyes upon so heretical a 
piece of legislation. They were wise enough to see 
the necessity of making of the bill a test case, and 
accordingly two lawyers were engaged to represent 
them before the Privy Council. Franklin was not 
to be outdone in point of legal precautions; he, too, 
employed counsel. By this time the year 1760 had 
more than begun. 

Franklin tells the story of the struggle in a few 
words, leaving out many of the details and ignoring 
the reports of the Lords of Committee, so that to 
read what he says one might suppose the Council 
had disposed of the matter in a day. His descrip- 
tion is, however, graphic and to the point : 

" They [counsel for the proprietors] alleged that the act was in- 
tended to load the proprietary estate in order to spare those of the 



138 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

people, and, that if it were suffered to continue in force, and the 
proprietaries, who were in odium with the people, left to their mercy 
in proportioning the taxes, they would inevitably be ruined. We re- 
plied that the act had no such intention, and would have no such 
effect. That the assessors were honest and discreet men under an 
oath to assess fairly and equitably, and that any advantage each of 
them might expect in lessening his own tax by augmenting that of 
the proprietaries was too trifling to induce them to perjure them- 
selves. . . . On this, Lord Mansfield, one of the council, rose, 
and beckoning me took me into the clerk's chamber, while the law- 
yers were pleading, and asked me if I was really of opinion that no 
injury would be done the proprietary estate in the execution of the 
act. I said, ' Certainly.' ' Then,' says he, ' you can have little ob- 
jection to enter into an engagement to assure that point.' I an- 
swered, ' None at all.' He then called in Paris, and after some 
discourse, his lordship's proposition was accepted on both sides ; a 
paper to the purpose was drawn up by the Clerk of the Council, 
which I signed with Mr. Charles, who was also an Agent of the 
Province for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned to 
the Council Chamber, where finally the law was allowed to pass. Some 
changes were however recommended and we also engaged they should 
be made by a subsequent law, but the Assembly did not think them 
necessary." 

The narrator does himself one gross injustice in 
that he gives not an inkling of his own cleverness in 
winning this great victory over the proprietaries. 
For it is to be borne in mind that before the Privy 
Councillors agreed to recommend the bill for the 
King's approval their Lords of Committee had first 
submitted a voluminous report reviewing the argu- 
ments in the case, and concluding that the measure 
was " offensive to natural justice, to the laws of 
England, and to the royal prerogative." Then 
note the diplomacy of the agent, in whose bright lexi- 
con the word ** failure" had no melancholy place. 
He set about to have the report reconsidered, and 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 139 

undertook that if the bill were approved the Assem- 
bly of Pennsylvania should pass an act exempting 
from assessment the unsurveyed waste lands of the 
proprietaries and making certain other concessions. 
Most of these concessions really amounted to 
nothing, and the Assembly never thought fit to 
make them (contending, among other things, that 
the unsurveyed waste lands of the Penns never had 
been taxed), but they illustrate Franklin's energy in 
striving to set aside an unfavourable verdict. One 
might suppose from his own modest account that 
the initiative in the matter had come from Lord 
Mansfield, and that the whole point at issue had 
been settled in a day. As it was, the Lords of 
Committee made a second report stating that in 
view of the amendments or concessions proposed it 
was desirable to leave the act unrepealed. King 
George IL, then on the verge of the grave, ap- 
pended his royal signature ; the arrogance of the 
Penns received a richly deserved rebuke. Well for 
the province was it that Franklin had persevered. 
He had indicated a principle, and, incidentally, pre- 
vented the financial panic which must have suc- 
ceeded a triumph of the proprietaries. The bills 
for the ;^ 100,000 appropriated in the act were 
already in circulation. 

The victory was hailed with delight when news of 
it reached Philadelphia, where only the upholders 
of the proprietary interests — not an insignificant 
clique, by the way — failed to share in the rejoicing. 
We may take it for granted that Chief- Justice Allen 
was not one of the gentlemen who joined in the 



140 Benjamin Franklin [1756- 

paean of praise in honour of the agent from his pro- 
vince, for he was no admirer of the latter, and he 
was to write somewhat later (1762), to the Messrs. 
Barclay of London: ** One would fain hope his 
[Franklin's] almost insatiable ambition is pretty near 
Satisfied by his parading about England, at the 
province's Expense for these five years past, which 
now appears in a different Light to our patriots than 
formerly, especially, as he has already stayed near 
two years longer than they expected." 

The abuse of the proprietary party could not 
seriously disturb the serenity of the philosopher, 
who must have realised that blame from that quarter 
was a sort of barometer showing how well or how ill 
he had succeeded in battling for the rights of liberty- 
loving Pennsylvanians. The higher rose the cries 
of the opposition the more clearly were his own 
talents emphasised. No amount of vituperation 
could prevent his enjoyment of English life, or 
abate one jot of the zest with which he observed all 
that was going on about him. Nothing had inter- 
ested him more than the reports, as they came in 
gk)rious succession, of the success of British arms in 
his own continent — the abandonment of Fort Du- 
quesne, the surrender of Louisburg, the capture of 
Quebec, and finally, the taking, in September, 1760, 
of Montreal. Canada had been wrested from the 
French, so had possessions in other parts of the 
world, and it became a much-debated question as 
to whether it would not be better for England to 
retain the newly acquired Guadaloupe and give up 
Canada! An absurd proposition, yet there actually 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

FROM A PAINTING BY CHARLES WILLSON PEALE, OWNED BY THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 141 

rose up a party which advised that preference be 
given to Guadaloupe. This was too much for 
Frankhn, who hastened to give his views, although 
not under his own signature, as to the importance 
of keeping the conquered American territory. As 
the subject was dear to his heart, the pamphlet had 
an air of sincerity and a logic that made a deep im- 
pression in circles both ministerial and unofficial. 
Two pamphlets had preceded Franklin's, one of 
them, by the Earl of Bath, favouring the retention 
of Canada, and the other, attributed either to Wil- 
liam Burke or to Edmund Burke, pleading for 
Guadaloupe. The next incident in the controversy 
was a reply to Franklin's paper, wherein the writer 
said he would address the unknown author, because 
of all those who had spoken in behalf of Canada, 
"he is clearly the ablest, the most ingenious, the 
most dexterous, and the most perfectly acquainted 
with the fort and faible of the argument, and we 
may therefore conclude that he has said everything 
in the best manner that the cause would bear." 
The man thus complimented required not the fame 
of his name to make his reasonings worthy of re- 
spect. They were eloquent without a signature. 

Verily, the philosopher could no more have ceased 
to interest himself in public affairs than he could 
have let that magnificent brain of his lapse into a 
state of idleness. Thus it was that he watched in- 
tently the progress of the French war, and spoke 
very strongly against the policy of concluding a 
peace that might prove too advantageous to the 
enemy. To enforce this view he resorted to an 



142 Benjamin Franklin 1756- 

ingenious expedient, by sending to the London 
Chrofiicle what purported to be an extract from an 
old quarto volume found by him in a bookstall. 
The book, he said, bore the date of 1629, and con- 
tained discourses addressed to a King of Spain. One 
of these discourses treated of " The Means of dis- 
posing the Enemie to Peace." Franklin asked 
leave to quote it, as being ** so apropos to our 
present situation (only changing Spain for France) 
that I think it well worth general attention and ob- 
servation, as it discovers the arts of our enemies, and 
may therefore help in some degree to put us on our 
guard against them." The supposed writer of the 
book advised the bribing of writers, speakers, and 
men of learning to recommend a peace dishonourable 
to their own victorious country, so that the van- 
quished power might gain, by insidious means, what 
it could not effect in the field. The inference was, 
of course, that France was trying by gold to corrupt 
influential Englishmen to advocate an easy peace, 
and the alleged " discourse " stirred up more than 
a flutter of interest, even if it led to nothing tangible. 
George III., the new King, was strenuously for 
peace, and even the great Pitt had to bend beneath 
the autocratic obstinacy of the monarch whose 
mother had so often said to him: '* George, be a 
King!" 

It was this same George whom Franklin, after re- 
turning from a trip to Holland and Flanders, saw 
crowned in regal state. Little did the subject dream 
that a day was to come when the young sovereign, 
for whom he cherished such respect and admiration, 



1762] A Battle with the Penns 143 

would be numbered among the greatest of his 
enemies. 

Now, however, there was nothing but love in the 
American's heart for his King and mother country. 
When he finally tore himself away from England, 
and was on the point of sailing for home (August, 
1762), Franklin wrote from Portsmouth to his friend 
Lord Kames: 

" I am now waiting here only for a wind to waft me to America, 
but cannot leave this happy island and my friends in it without ex- 
treme regret, though I am going to a country and a people that I 
love. I am going from the old world to the new ; and I fancy I feel 
like those who are leaving this world for the next : grief at the part- 
ing ; fear of the passage ; hope of the future." 

And as if to cement the tie between the returning 
voyager and the kin he was leaving behind, the 
English Government appointed his son William, 
who had become a pronounced favourite abroad, to 
the vacant governorship of New Jersey. It was an 
honour which would have for its bitter end the 
estrangement of father and son, but of such 2, finale 
there was now no suspicion. The prospect was 
serene and peaceful. The clouds of revolution had 
not begun to gather. 




CHAPTER VI 

IN THORNY PATHS 
1 762- 1 765 



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F Franklin, upon reaching home early 
in November, 1762, nursed the 
thought that he might now devote 
himself to a leisurely existence, free 
of public care, he was destined to 
have the illusion rudely dispelled. At first, how- 
ever, all things pointed to a season of peace and 
quiet for a man who, after valiantly serving his 
countrymen and attaining the comfortable age of 
fifty-six, had a right to expect a lull in the storm 
and stress of life. His return, and the greeting he 
received, must have warmed a heart so peculiarly 
susceptible to the admiration of those about him, 
and have duly compensated for the honours which 
he had left behind in hospitable England. Mrs. 
Franklin was of good health, and delighted, in a 
calm, equable way, to see her lord and master; 
Sarah, the daughter, had grown into an attractive, 
accomplished woman, and old friends proved, de- 
spite the mutterings of the proprietary party, as 
hearty and affectionate as ever. Nay, they crowded 

144 



1765] In Thorny Paths HS 

into the house of the great doctor, and were not 
long in informing him that during his voyage across 
the ocean he had once more been elected a member 
of the Assembly. When he appeared before his 
fellow-legislators, the majority of whom felt the 
liveliest gratitude for this successful wrestler with 
the stubborn Penns, he must have been hailed with 
unstinted enthusiasm. He duly received the thanks 
of the Assembly, official and private, and got a still 
more practical acknowledgment of services rendered 
in a grant of ^^3000 sterling. The Speaker was 
directed to publicly convey the aforesaid thanks to 
the agent, and, having done so, there came a ** re- 
spectful " reply from the recipient, who, addressing 
himself to the chair, said that " he was thankful to 
the House for the very handsome and generous 
allowance they had been pleased to make him," but 
that their approbation was, in his estimation, " far 
above every other kind of recompense." A very 
pretty example of old-fashioned courtesy, yet there 
was a welcome place in the philosopher's strong-box 
for that trifle of;^3000 sterling. His expenses in 
England had been considerable ; reimbursement was 
in order. 

By this time William Franklin had gotten back 
from London, bringing with him a bride and his 
commission as Governor of New Jersey. The greet- 
ings between father and son were of an affectionate 
character. The former had cherished for the young 
man matrimonial hopes in which the present Mrs. 
William, a lady from the West Indies, played no 
part, but that was an old story now, and the new- 



14^ Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

comer found her father-in-law all that was affable. 
A little later the Postmaster-General — for he had not 
resigned his position — made an official tour of the 
northern colonies, and after covering sixteen hun- 
dred miles right pleasantly, he drove back to Phila- 
delphia, there to recuperate from the jolts and jars 
of country roads. But there was to be no rest ; 
before many days Franklin would be back again in 
that public harness which was to enclose him until 
near the very end. The Indians had begun a bloody 
warfare along the western frontier of the colonies ; 
murder and the torch played grim pranks with the 
settlers in the unprotected border counties of Penn- 
sylvania; fear reigned supreme, and so, too, did the 
spirit of retaliation. To avenge themselves upon 
the enemy for the destruction of their companions, 
the burning of their homes, and the taking of un- 
fortunate women and children into captivity, was 
the first thought of the frontiersmen ; to avenge 
themselves upon a few inoffensive savages, who had 
learned the peaceful ways of civilisation, was their 
second and more unnatural thought. The Scotch- 
Irish settlers of Lancaster County, more particularly 
the hot-headed " Paxton boys " (who hailed from 
the township of Paxton or Paxtang), longed for the 
lives of the poor, harmless Indians of Bethlehem, of 
Nazareth, or of the manor of Conestoga — quiet, 
well-behaved little communities by no means so 
dangerous to the colony as were the Paxton rowdies 
themselves. 

The Indians at Conestoga had dwindled to twenty 
souls, seven men, five women, and eight children. 



1765] In Thorny Paths 147 

now the sad remnant of a once powerful tribe of the 
Six Nations. Every time that a new governor 
arrived in the province it was their custom to send 
him an address of Vv^elcome and fealty; only a few 
weeks before (October, 1763) had they tendered 
their best wishes to John Penn, the son of Richard 
Penn, when that worthy came across the water to 
succeed James Hamilton in the gubernatorial chair, 
and to thus illustrate the condescension and mag- 
nanimity of the long-suffering proprietary. But 
they would soon depart from the jurisdiction of any 
earthly governor; a brutal massacre, destined to 
mark one of the most disgraceful pages in the history 
of Pennsylvania, would annihilate the last of the 
Susquehannocks. The " Paxton boys," who had 
vowed their destruction, sallied forth one night, 
fifty-seven well-armed and mounted ruffians, and 
never stopped riding until they reached Conestoga 
at the dawn of day. Without warning they broke 
into the huts of the red men, the one idea being to 
give no quarter, and thus to avenge outrages for 
which the Susquehannocks were in nowise respon- 
sible. To the Paxtons the only good Indians were 
dead Indians — all who lived should be put out of 
the world as soon as possible. 

"Only three men, two women and a young boy were found at 
home, the rest being out among the neighbouring white people [as 
Franklin afterward told the painful story] — some to sell the baskets, 
brooms and bowls they manufactured, and others on other occasions. 
These poor defenceless creatures were immediately fired upon, 
stabbed, and hatcheted to death ! The good Shehaes [the old man 
of the tribe, who had known William Penn] among the rest, cut to 
pieces in his bed. All of them were scalped and otherwise horribly 



148 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

mangled. Then their huts were set on fire and most of them burnt 
down. Then the troop, pleased with their own conduct and bravery, 
but enraged that any of the poor Indians had escaped the massacre, 
rode off, and in small parties, by different roads, went home. The 
universal concern of the neighbouring white people, on hearing of 
this event, and the lamentations of the younger Indians, when they 
returned and saw the desolation, and the butchered, half-burnt 
bodies of their murdered parents and other relations, cannot well be 
expressed." 

The fourteen remaining Indians were taken to 
Lancaster, where they were placed in the work- 
house, '* a strong building," for their better protec- 
tion. When the news of the massacre reached 
Philadelphia (filling Franklin and many of his friends 
with horror, and being excused by some on the 
ground that it was a matter of necessity). Governor 
Penn issued, three days before the pacific feast of 
Christmas, a ringing, if useless, proclamation. All 
the officers of the provinces, from the judges down, 
were ordered to seek out the offenders, so that they 
might be " proceeded against according to law." 
But the " Paxton boys " considered themselves 
above proclamations, just as the modern lynchers 
seek to rise above the law. They rode to Lancas- 
ter, armed as before, " went directly to the work- 
house, and by violence broke open the door, and 
entered with the utmost fury in their countenances. 
When the poor wretches saw they had no protection 
nigh, nor could possibly escape, and being without 
the least weapon for defence, they divided into their 
little families, the children clinging to the parents " ; 
— again we quote Franklin — " they fell on their 
knees, protested their innocence, declared their love 



t765l In Thorny Paths 149 

to the English, and that in their whole lives they 
had never done them injury; and in this posture 
they all received the hatchet. Men, women, and 
little children were every one inhumanly murdered 
in cold blood ! The barbarous men who committed 
the atrocious fact, in defiance of government, of 
all laws human and divine, and to the eternal dis- 
grace of their country and colour, then mounted 
their horses, huzzaed in triumph, as if they had 
gained a victory, and rode off unmolested I " Cer- 
tainly the cowardly onslaught of the Paxton gang 
was a disgrace to what we are pleased to term 
civilisation, and it so excited the indignation of 
Franklin that when he came to write his Narrative 
of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County, from 
which we have just given extracts, he stigmatised 
the episode as one whose "guilt will lie on the whole 
land, till justice is done on the murderers." Con- 
fiding Susquehannocks! They were unsuspicious 
up to the last, and when old Shehaes was told that 
some English might come from the frontier to mur- 
der him and his family, he replied: "It is impos- 
sible; there are Indians, indeed, in the woods who 
would kill me and mine, if they could get at us, for 
my friendship to the English ; but the English will 
wrap me in their match-coat, and secure me from all 
dangers. 

Perhaps in the whole range of the philosopher's 
writings there is no finer example than in the before- 
mentioned Narrative of his power to speak, when 
he so desired, with emphasis and picturesqueness of 
feeling. His style was not, as a rule, oratorical, 



150 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

but in this instance indignation carried him far be- 
yond his customary command of the suaviter in 
modo. Referring to the Christian Indians of Bethle- 
hem and Nazareth who had already sought refuge in 
Philadelphia, only to be sent away from there to 
New York, and then returned, Franklin exclaimed: 

" They have been hurried from place to place for safety, now 
concealed in corners, then sent out of the province, refused a passage 
through a neighbouring colony, and returned, not unkindly, perhaps, 
but disgracefully, on our hands. O Pennsylvania ! Once renowned 
for kindness to strangers, shall the clamours of a few mean niggards 
about the expense of this public hospitality, an expense that will not 
cost the noisy wretches sixpence a piece (and what is the expense of 
the poor maintenance we afford them, compared to the expense they 
might occasion if in arms against us), — shall so senseless a clamour, I 
say, force you to turn out of your own doors these unhappy guests, 
who have offended their own country-folks by their affection for you, 
who, confiding in your goodness, have put themselves under your 
protection. Those whom you have disarmed to satisfy groundless 
suspicions, will you leave them exposed to the armed madmen of 
their country ? Unmanly men ! who are not ashamed to come with 
weapons against the unarmed, to use the sword against women, and 
the bayonet against young children ; and who have already given 
such bloody proofs of their inhumanity and cruelty." 

He ends by saying that ** cowards can handle arms, 
can strike where they are sure to meet with no re- 
turn, can wound, mangle, and murder," but that it 
belongs to brave men to spare and to protect," 
for, as he quotes the poet, 

' ' Mercy still sways the brave. 

The peaceful Indian visitors, in whose behalf 
Franklin so warmly took up the cudgels, were 
having a hard time of it in recompense for their 



1765] In Thorny Paths 151 

loyalty to the province. They had reached Phila- 
delphia, a frightened band of one hundred and forty, 
with the greatest difficulty, for the people along 
their route from the Lehigh were intensely hostile 
to them, and mob violence was feared. A mob, 
indeed, is nearly always brutal and unreasoning, 
and to the hot-heads there was no difference be- 
tween the Indians of peaceful ways and the Indians 
of the scalping-knife. The wanderers from the 
Lehigh were immediately escorted by their mis- 
sionaries to the royal barracks in the Northern 
Liberties, but not for long could they tarry there. 

"A crowd soon gathered: presently it was a mob. Joseph Fox, 
the Commissary of the Barracks, hastened to consult the governor, 
and late in the afternoon returned with orders to take the Indians to 
the buildings on Province Island — the refuge first of the Palatines, 
then of the Acadians, now of the Christian Indians. Surrounded by 
a menacing crowd, the party drove down Second Street, the mission- 
aries still guarding their flock ' as if from wolves,' and at length 
reached boats on the river which took them to the Island." * 

This was in November. Then came the massacre 
of the Susquehannocks in December, and next a 
sensational report that the " Paxton boys" pro- 
jected a pleasant little jaunt to the Quaker City, in 
order to murder the new inhabitants of Province 
Island. What was to be done ? Should the refug-ees 
be sent to Nantucket, or even to England ? Finally 
it was determined to transport them to New York 
— a cowardly expedient. Early one morning, before 
the breaking of the dawn, they were smuggled over 

* Alemorial History of the City of Philadelphia. See also Scharf 
^nd Westcott's History. 



152 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

to Philadelphia, and hurried away to the Bristol 
pike, under the protection of their missionaries and 
a detachment of Royal Highlanders. Soon, how- 
ever, they were back again, having been denied 
admittance to the province of New York; " other 
troops, a hundred of the Royal Americans, guarded 
them back, and the simple piety and serene faith of 
the poor creatures had so reached the soldiers that 
now, as their waggons came down the street, in the 
midst of a heavy snowstorm, they were admitted to 
the Barracks without a word." 

Now came a rumour that fifteen hundred men 
from Lancaster were marching to Philadelphia for 
the destruction of the Indians. Thereupon the 
alarmed citizens (or such of them as had no sympa- 
thies for *' Paxton " principles), and the no less 
alarmed Governor Penn, looked to Franklin for 
assistance. The latter had done so much for the 
city of his adoption that there was a very natural 
impulse, even among his enemies, to regard him as 
a tower of strength in time of emergency. A mass- 
meeting was held at the State House, when the riot 
act of George I. was read by authority of the As- 
sembly, a new militia association was formed under 
the auspices of Franklin, and for a time all was 
frightened bustle and trepidation. The barracks, 
where the Indians now trembled for their lives, were 
defended with cannon, a stockade was thrown up, 
and various other warlike preparations were made. 
It was ordered that if the alarm bells should sound 
a warning of the mob's approach all the citizens 
should rush either to the barracks or to the court- 



1765] In Thorny Paths 153 

house. " Business was suspended, shops did not 
open, the ferries were dismantled, and couriers 
charging back and forth along the streets kept up 
the excitement. Even the Quakers forgot their 
principles." ^ Indeed, many of the Friends, young 
and old, were so infected with the spirit of the mo- 
ment that they took up arms. This radical depart- 
ure from the non-resistance policy made such an 
impression that on one occasion, when a well-known 
Quaker was seen shouldering a musket, a crowd of 
boys followed him along the street with astonished 
cries of " Look here! A Quaker with a musket on 
his shoulder! " 

The excitement and the calling to arms had begun 
on a Saturday (February 4, 1764), and by the follow- 
ing Monday the much-feared enemy from the 
country of the Paxtons had reached Germantown — 
not fifteen hundred strong, as at first reported, but 
a hardy party of two hundred frontiersmen, who as- 
serted that they were only the advance-guard of a 
formidable gathering. Having gotten thus far on 
their march, the would-be avengers heard of the 
preparations which had been made to oppose them, 
and prudently halted, perhaps to deliberate as to 
their future plan of operation. How were they to 
be dealt with ? That became the instant topic of 
conversation in Philadelphia, and there were some 
bellicose citizens who thought that the militia should 
promptly attack the invaders. But Governor Penn, 
who was leaning more and more on the strong arm 
of Franklin, was for treating with them. Accord- 

* Scharf and Westcott. 



154 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

Ingly, when Tuesday came, the Postmaster-General 
and some other citizens repaired to Germantown, 
met the backwoodsmen, and after Hstening to their 
grievance and receiving a ** manifesto " setting forth 
the latter, persuaded them to disband. The next 
morning a few of the rioters rode into town, failed 
to identify any of the refugees as murderers, saving 
an old squaw, and rode away again peacefully. So 
ended the episode. Throughout it all we see the 
guiding hand of Franklin, first in putting the city in 
a condition of defence, and then in throwing aside 
the mantle of the soldier for that of the diplomatist, 
by securing a bloodless victory. 

" Governor Penn," he relates, anent this excitement, in a letter to 
Lord Kames, " made my house for some time his headquarters, and 
did everything by my advice ; so that for about forty-eight hours, I 
vi'as a very great man ; as I had been once some years before, in a 
time of public danger. But ihe fighting face we put on, and the 
reasonings we used with the insurgents, . . . having turned 
them back and restored quiet to the city, I became a less man than 
ever ; for I had, by this transaction, made myself many enemies 
among the populace ; and the Governor (with whose family our pub- 
lic disputes had long placed me in an unfriendly light, and the 
services I had lately rendered him not being of the kind that make a 
man acceptable) thinking it a favourable opportunity, joined the 
whole w^ght of the proprietary interest to get me out of the Assem- 
bly." 

The unfortunate Indians, or such of them as did 
not die of smallpox, were finally sent back to the 
Moravians of the Lehigh, but it would be many a 
long day before the ill-feeling stirred up by the 
Paxton controversy should die out. For while the 
Quakers strenuously supported Franklin in his de- 



1765] In Thorny Paths 155 

nunciation of the murder of the Susquehannocks, a 
strong party had arisen to defend the Paxtons — a 
party which soon had for its most imposing adherent 
John Penn himself. The Governor had forgotten 
his righteous indignation ; instead of trying to bring 
the slayers of poor Shehaes and his tribe to a tardy 
justice, he went so far in the other direction as to 
issue a proclamation offering bounties for Indian 
scalps. Writers on either side rushed into print with 
poems " and pamphlets, while one might have 
supposed, from the tenor of some of the squibs, that 
Benjamin Franklin was the most hated man in the 
province. The Quakers who had so valiantly and 
inconsistently risen to the defence of the city, came 
in for their share of lampooning, and one squib thus 
made fun of their readiness to use a meeting-house 
for the shelter of militia during the short time that 
Philadelphia was under arms : 

" Cock up your hats ; look fierce and trim ! 
Nor wear the horizontal brim ; 
The house of prayer be made a den 
Not of vile thieves, but armed men ; 
Tho' 't is indeed a profanation 
Which we must expiate with lustration ; 
But such the present time requires, 
And such are all the Friends' desires ; 
Fill bumpers, then, of rum or arrack ! 
We '11 drink success to the new barrack." 

But from the Indians the controversy soon drifted 
into a discussion of proprietary and anti-proprietary 
rights, with Franklin once again siding with the 
Quakers (who held the majority in the Assembly), 



156 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

in their war against the poHcy of the Penns. And 
now the fight was waxing warm, for the Assembly 
had been goaded so far as to contemplate a petition 
to the King, praying that Pennsylvania be taken 
out of the control of the proprietaries, and that it 
be made a royal province, directly under the govern- 
ment of the crown. It was a bold step to plan, 
but one which the conduct of John Penn seemed to 
fully justify. The Governor, who had, upon his 
arrival, been all conciliation and politeness, now 
showed his true colours by vetoing two important 
bills. One was a militia bill (to which he objected 
because it did not give him power to appoint all the 
officers of the regiment) ; the other appropriated 
money for a campaign against the hostile Indians, 
taxing all estates alike, as the legislators were 
authorised in doing by the action of the Privy 
Council. These vetoes were exasperating ; the 
many grievances against the proprietaries were 
forthwith vigorously aired in the Assembly, with 
Franklin always in the van of the malcontents. 
Finally, the members resolved to adjourn until May 
(1764), in order to consult their constituents on the 
advisability of drawing up an address to the King, 
** praying that he would be graciously pleased to 
take the people of this province under his immediate 
protection, by completing the agreement heretofore 
made with the first proprietary for the sale of the 
government to the crown, or otherwise." 

No sooner did the Assembly adjourn than a wordy 
war of pamphleteering ensued, the respective causes 
of the proprietary and the anti-proprietary interests 



1765] In Thorny Paths 157 

being debated with warmth, and at times with 
acrimony. Franklin, ever on the alert, quickly en- 
tered into the battle by writing some Cool Thoughts 
on the Present Situation of our Public Affairs. This 
paper, which he caused to be freely and widely 
distributed through the city, showed, in a clear, 
lucid style, the inconveniences of a government 
under the autocratic yoke of the Penns. We can 
understand how the adherents of the latter must 
have hated our " little postmaster " at this period, 
nor would it be surprising if the ** persons of qual- 
ity " among them indulged in contemptuous flings 
at his humbleness of birth andhis early soap-boiling 
surroundings. Already was there an aristocratic 
spirit abroad in Philadelphia, notwithstanding that 
the city had been settled by colonists in the same 
class of life as was Josiah Franklin. Indeed, it is 
by no means improbable that to these members of 
the *' best society," who were trying hard to shake 
off the familiar atmosphere of the family grocery or 
of the workshop, the first of all their citizens was a 
plebeian, and, no doubt, a bit of a demagogue into 
the bargain. 

But what cared Franklin for that ? He was thor- 
oughly independent, financially, socially, and politi- 
cally, of the Governor's parasites, and was under no 
necessity to regulate his conduct to suit the timorous 
people who basked in the sun of official favour. No; 
he spoke out in ringing tones ; nothing could have 
been more apropos than those Cool but emphatic 
Thoughts, Mr. John Penn must have read the 
pamphlet with feelings of unadulterated anger, and 



15^ Benjamin Franklin [^62- 

it is probable that he wished his one-time ally at the 
bottom of the Delaware, when he came to a passage 
like this : 

" The government, that ought to keep all in order, is itself weak, 
and has scarce authority enough to keep the common peace. Mobs 
assemble and kill (we scarce dare say murder) numbers of innocent 
people in cold blood, who were under the protection of the govern- 
ment. Proclamations are issued to bring the rioters to justice. 
Those proclamations are treated with the utmost indignity and con- 
tempt. Not a magistrate dares wag a finger towards discovering or 
apprehending the delinquents (we must not call them murderers)." 

And in perusing the conclusion of Cool Thoughts 
mayhap the Governor was filled with the same un- 
christian sentiment : 

" We are chiefly people of three countries. British spirits can no 
longer bear the treatment they have received, nor will they put on the 
chains prepared for them by a fellow-subject. And the Irish and 
Germans have felt too severely the oppressions of hard-hearted land- 
lords and arbitrary princes, to wish to see, in the proprietaries of 
Pennsylvania, both the one and the other united." * 

The controversy was not confined, by any means, 
to the writing of pamphlets. Public meetings were 
held throughout the province, and it may be in- 
ferred that the colonists, as a whole, were over- 
whelmingly in favour of the address to the King. 
When the Assembly re-convened, about the middle 
of May, there were found to be over three thousand 
signatures to the petition recommending the appeal, 
as against less than three hundred signatures up- 



* Cool Thoughts bore on its face the stamp of Franklin, in thought 
and mode of expression, although the paper was ostensibly addressed 
to *' A Friend in the Country," and signed " A. B." 



1765] In Thorny Paths 159 

holding the proprietaries. The momentous subject 
was discussed at length by the legislature, John 
Dickinson being the chief speaker in behalf of the 
present government, and Joseph Galloway, the gov- 
ernment's most eloquent opponent. Then the 
address was put to vote, and adopted by a large 
majority. Suddenly there came a halt in the pro- 
ceedings. Isaac Norris, the venerable Speaker of 
the Assembly, announced that he did not wish to 
sign an address with which he was out of harmony. 
He asked for delay, and pleaded illness as a reason 
for resigning. The upshot of the affair was that 
Franklin was elected to the speakership, and gladly 
affixed his name to the document. For the 
moment the anti-proprietary party was in the ascen- 
dent. 

Yet there was more work to be done. The elec- 
tion for members of the Assembly would take place 
in October, and the result of the polling, particu- 
larly as it concerned the returns from Philadelphia, 
might have a very important bearing on the future 
government of the colony. To defeat Franklin and 
Galloway now became the aim of the Penn party. 
Philadelphians girded their loins for the struggle. 
Once more the contestants hastened into print, and 
once more the head of the constitutional rebels came 
in for many a hard dig. Chief-Justice Allen, who 
now hated the latter more than ever, wrote over to 
London setting forth that the clamours against the 
proprietors were '* owing to the malice of Franklin 
and Galloway," adding: '* I hope and believe their 
reign is short, and am persuaded all their efforts for 



i6o Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

further mischief will be, in a great measure, prevented 
in time to come, whatever way the next elections 
are determined, for the people begin to open their 
eyes daily, and they would scarce be so hardy as to 
attempt the same measures again." 

The pamphlets grew more and more scurrilous, 
and it may be inferred that the warped Chief Justice 
read with pleasure one of them wherein Franklin 
was held up to scorn as an immoral and dangerous 
politician, and apostrophised in the following polite 
terms : 

" Reader, behold this striking Instance of 
Human Depravity and Ingratitude ; 
An irrefragable Proof 

That neither the Capita] Services of Fj-iends, 
Nor the attracting Favours of the Fair, 
Can fix the Sincerity of a Man, 
Devoid of Principles and 
Ineffably mean ; 
Whose Ambition is 

Power, 
And whose intention is 

Tyranny." 

This delicate criticism had been provoked by the 
preface which the doctor had written to a speech 
against the proprietary government, delivered in the 
Assembly by Joseph Galloway, and subsequently 
printed for general circulation. This preface is a 
lengthy speech in itself, but it reads incisively even 
yet, particularly that remarkable memorial, " in the 
lapidary style," which the writer suggested as the 
proper epitaph for the Messrs. Thomas and Richard 
Penn, the non-illustrious sons of the great William: 



1765] In Thorny Paths 161 

" Be this a Memorial 

Of T and R P , 

P of P , 

Who, with estates immense, 

Almost beyond computation. 

When their own province, 

And the whole British empire, 

Were engaged in a bloody and most expensive war, 

Begun for the defence of those estates, 

Could yet meanly desire 

To have those very estates 

Totally or partially 

Exempted from taxation, 

While their fellow-subjects all around them, 

Groaned 

Under the universal burden. 

• •••••• 

A striking instance 

Of human depravity and ingratitude ; 

And an irrefragable proof. 

That wisdom and goodness 

Do not descend with an inheritance ; 

But that ineffable meanness 

May be connected with unbounded fortune." 

Now came the Assembly election with an *' old 
ticket," headed by Franklin and Galloway, and a 
" new ticket," representing the proprietary interests, 
in the exciting field. The Moravians and nearly all 
the Quakers supported the ** old " ticket ; the 
Church of England men and the Dutch Lutherans 
were divided in their opinions, and the Dutch Cal- 
vinists and the Presbyterians were strongly in favour 
of the " new " ticket. On the first day of October, 
at nine o'clock in the morning, the poll was opened, 
and from then until nearly midnight there was a 
lengthy line of voters, so that at no time could a 



1 62 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

citizen get from the end of the Hne to the booth in 

less than a quarter of an hour. 

"About three in the morning, the advocates for the new ticket moved 
for a close, but (Oh ! the fatal mistake ! ) the old hands kept it open, 
as they had a reserve for the aged and lame, which could not come 
in the crowd, and were called up and brought out in chairs and lit- 
ters, and some who needed no help, between three and six o'clock, 
about 200 voters. As both sides took care to have spies all night, 
the alarm was given to the new ticket men ; horsemen and footmen 
were immediately dispatched to Germantown and elsewhere, and by 
nine or ten o'clock they began to pour in, so that after the move for 
a close, 700 or 800 votes were procured." * 

It was three o'clock that afternoon before the polls 
closed, and it was not until the next day that the 
votes were counted, and it was found that Galloway 
and Franklin had been defeated by a very small 
majority. Yet it is safe to claim that no one heard 
the result of the election with greater serenity than 
the Postmaster-General. '* Mr. Franklin," we are 
told, " died like a philosopher," but Mr. Galloway 
** agonised in death, like a Mortal Deist, who has 
no Hopes of a Future Existence." 

Although Franklin had been ousted, and the anti- 
proprietary party had been considerably reduced in 
numbers, that party still maintained a majority in 
the Assembly, and straightway proceeded to em- 
power their leader to proceed to London, there to 
put before the King in Council the petition for the 
change of government. At once there arose a storm 
of objection from the Penn adherents; a counter- 
petition was brought into the Assembly, and Mr. 
Dickinson burst forth before that body in a speech 

* Pettit's letter to Joseph Reed. 



1765] In Thorny Paths 163 

wherein he asserted that no man in the province was 
so much the object of pubhc disHke as Frankhn. 
After coolly suggesting that Franklin should resign 
the proposed special agency, his enemy went on to 
say: 

" The gentleman proposed has been called here to-day ' a great lu- 
minary of the learned world.' I acknowledge his abilities. Far be 
it from me to detract from the merit I admire. Let him still shine, 
but without wrapping his country in flames. Let him, from a pri- 
vate station, a small sphere, diffuse, as I think he may, a beneficial 
light ; but let him not be made to move and blaze like a comet, to 
terrify and distress." 

When the proprietary's henchmen found that they 
could not prevent the triumphant election as agent 
of their arch-opposer, they drew up a protest, which 
(the Assembly refusing to place it on the minutes) 
they proceeded to have printed. This curious paper, 
which was signed by ten citizens, among them John 
Dickinson, Chief-Justice Allen, and Thomas Willing, 
attacked their great adversary in terms more em- 
phatic than truthful or courteous. It was contended : 
(i) that Franklin was " the chief author of the meas- 
ures pursued by the late Assembly, which have 
occasioned such uneasiness and destraction among 
the good people of this province"; (2) that his 
** fixed enmity " to the proprietors would preclude 
all accommodation of the disputes with them, " even 
on just and reasonable terms"; (3) that he was 

very unfavourably thought of by several of His 
Majesty's ministers " ; (4) that his appointment was 

extremely disagreeable to a very great number of 
the most serious and reputable inhabitants of this 



164 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

province " ; (5) that the ** unnecessary haste" in 
making the appointment might subject the Assem- 
bly *' to the censures and very heavy displeasure of 
our most gracious Sovereign and his Ministers"; 
and (6) that ** the gentleman proposed has heretofore 
ventured, contrary to an act of Assembly, to place 
the public money in the stocks, whereby this pro- 
vince suffered a loss of £6000.*' 

When this protest appeared Franklin was about to 
sail for England, but in the midst of all his prepara- 
tions he promptly wrote a reply to the ill-natured 
charges of Messrs. Dickinson and Company. '^' No 
answer could have vindicated more completely the 
complacent victim of the mud-throwing policy of 
the proprietary party ; nothing could have been 
more convincing, manly in tone, and forcible. 

" And do those of you, Gentlemen," cried out the slandered agent, 
in responding to the taunt as to his defeat at the polls, " reproach me 
with this, who, among near four thousand voters, had scarcely a 
score more than I had ? It seems, then, that your elections were 
very near being rejections, and thereby furnishing the same proof in 
your case that you produce in mine, of your being likewise extremely 
disagreeable to a very great number of people." 

And thus he continues in a vein, sometimes of sar- 
casm and sometimes of vigorous denial, that must 
have done more for his cause than could a hundred 
pamphlets of coarse vituperation. 

" Not only my duty to the crown, in carrying the post-office act more 
duly into execution, was made use of to exasperate the ignorant, as 

'^Remarks on a Late Protest against the Appointment of Mr. 
Franklin as Agent for the Province of Pennsylvania^ dated Novem- 
ber 5, 1764. 



n<^s] In Thorny Paths 165 

if I was increasing my own profits by picking their pockets ; but my 
very zeal in opposing the murderers, and supporting the authority 
of government, and even my humanity with regard to the innocent 
Indians under our protection, were mustered among my offences, to 
stir up against me those religious bigots, who are of all savages the 
most brutish. Add to this the numberless falsehoods propagated as 
truths ; and the many perjuries procured among the wretched rabble 
brought to swear themselves entitled to a vote ; and yet so poor a 
superiority obtained at all this expense of honor and conscience ! 
Can this, Gentlemen, be matter of triumph ? Enjoy it, then. Your 
exultation, however, was short. Your artifices did not prevail every- 
where ; nor your double tickets and whole boxes of forged votes. A 
great majority of the new-chosen assembly were of the old members, 
and remained uncorrupted. They still stood firm for the people, and 
will obtain justice from the proprietaries. But what does that avail 
to you, who are in the proprietary interests ? " 

The after-election cry of " Fraud " is not of modern 
origin. 

But the most serious of all the charges in the pro- 
test was that which accused Franklin of investing 
illegally certain public monies entrusted to his care.* 

" You might have mentioned," he says in rebuttal, " that the direc- 
tion of the act to lodge the money in the bank, subject to the drafts 
of the trustees of the loan office here, was impracticable ; that the 
bank refused to receive it on those terms, it being contrary to their 
settled rules to take charge of money subject to the orders of un- 
known people living in distant countries. You might have mentioned 
that the House being informed of this, and having no immediate call 
for the money, did themselves adopt the measure of placing it in the 
stocks, when they were low ; where it might on a peace produce a 
considerable profit and in the meantime accumulate an interest, 
and that the loss arose, not from placing the money in 
the stocks, but from the imprudent and unnecessary drawing it out 
at the very time when they were lowest, on some slight uncertain 



* " The money here meant was a sum granted by Parliament as 
an indemnification for part of our expenses in the late war." 



1 66 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

rumours of a peace concluded ; that if the Assembly had let it remain 
another year, instead of losing, they would have gained six thousand 
pounds. 

'• I am now to take leave (perhaps a last leave) of the country I 
love, and in which I have spent the greatest part of my life," con- 
cluded Franklin. " -Esto perpetuo. I wish every kind of prosperity 
to my friends ; and I forgive my enemies." 

Five days later the special agent for Pennsylvania 
was on his way to Chester, there to take ship for 
England, and with him to that town went three 
hundred of his fellow-citizens, an admiring cavalcade 
bearing eloquent testimony to the popularity of this 
great constitutional fighter among the liberty-loving 
element of Philadelphia. Another evidence of es- 
teem had been shown in the quickness with which 
prominent merchants had subscribed i^iioo toward 
his expenses abroad — a sum of money to be repaid 
by the Assembly, and of which the honoured recip- 
ient would only accept a portion. Yet it could not 
have been altogether a joyful departure. Wife and 
daughter and all the domestic ties held most dear 
were, perforce, left at home, and so, too, were 
enemies who would have only the freer field now 
that their mighty opponent was gone. The future 
was one of vast uncertainty. What was to be the 
outcome ? 

" You know I have many enemies," wrote the fond father to the 
cherished Sarah, as his vessel sailed down the river, "all indeed on 
the public account, (for I cannot recollect that I have in a private 
capacity given just cause of offence to any one whatever), yet they 
are enemies, and very bitter ones ; and you must expect their enmity 
will extend in some degree to you, so that your slightest indiscretions 
will be magnified into crimes, in order the more sensibly to wound 
and afflict me." 



1765] In Thorny Paths 167 

And very soon would a blunder, the only great 
blunder of the statesman's political career, put a 
weapon into the hands of those enemies. 

Strange to say, when Dr. Franklin got to London 
(December, 1764), the petition to the King was for- 
gotten in the interest attending a much more serious 
matter. The troubles of the province, great as they 
undoubtedly were, gave way to an issue of national 
importance. In short, the English ministry had 
determined to practically destroy the independence 
of the colonial assemblies, and to ignore the theory 
of *' no taxation without representation," by impos- 
ing a direct stamp-tax upon America, Hitherto the 
provinces had appropriated money for the King's 
service, when so desired, by vote of their several 
legislatures, and had thus been free agents. Now, 
however, all this was to be changed. The colonies, 
without representation in Parliament, were, never- 
theless, to be forced by Parliament to submit to an 
arbitary internal tax, so that the aid to the crown 
would become compulsory in the very worst sense 
of the word.^ The project involved not merely the 

*"It is commonly believed," says Professor McMaster, "that 
this famous tax was the first of its kind known in America. But this 
is a mistake, for twice had stamp taxes been willingly laid and will- 
ingly borne, and, when they expired, as willingly renewed. The 
first was imposed for one year by Massachusetts in 1755, and re- 
enacted in 1756. The other was passed by New York in December, 
1756, It ran for one year, was renewed in 1757 for another year, 
and created neither discontent nor opposition. Against stamp duties. 
New York and Massachusetts could therefore make no complaint. 
It was against stamp duties laid without consent of the colonies that 
the four London agents protested vigorously on the 2nd of Febru- 
ary, 1765." — See Benjamin Fratiklin as a Man of Letters, 



1 68 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

uslng of stamps upon legal documents, newspapers, 
commercial paper, etc., galling and onerous as that 
would be in itself; a vital principle was at stake, 
and Americans saw themselves about to be treated 
not as free-and-equal citizens, or subjects, of a great 
empire, but rather as semi-serfs who must do the 
bidding of the Lords and Commons of Westminster, 
in whose proceedings they had no voice. For once 
admit the correctness of the theory on which this 
stamp act was based, and who was to foretell to 
what lengths an arrogant Parliament might carry its 
power ? Furthermore, an elaborate scheme had 
been suggested by which the colonies were to be 
brought under more direct and submissive control 
of the mother country; territorial boundaries would 
be altered, provincial constitutions remodelled, and 
popular power abridged. It was no wonder, then, 
that the intentions of the government as to taxa- 
tion, which had been broached in the colonies some 
time before the departure of Franklin, should arouse 
the most sincere alarm, the gravest misgivings. 
Nor was it anything but natural that when the 
matter had been discussed by the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania in the preceding summer the members 
heartily condemned the proposed tax, while at the 
same time officially recording their purpose " to 
grant aid to the crown, according to their abilities, 
whenever required of them, in the usual constitu- 
tional manner. 

No sooner was he in London than the energetic 
doctor hastened to the aid not only of Pennsylvania, 
but of the colonies in general, by trying to stem the 



1765] In Thorny Paths 169 

dangerous current which bid fair to overwhelm the 
liberties of his country. In company with the other 
provincial agents he waited upon George Grenville, 
the Prime Minister, but his arguments, forcible, 
logical, and temperately expressed as they were, 
might have been addressed to deaf ears, for any 
good that they effected. ** I have pledged my word 
for offering the Stamp Bill to the House," said 
Grenville, " and I cannot forego it; they will hear 
all objections, and do as they please " ; and he re- 
marked politely, but with the spirit of the political 
tyrant, " you cannot hope to get any good by a 
controversy with the mother country." In March, 
therefore, the obnoxious bill was passed as a matter 
of course; " within doors [Parliament], less resist- 
ance was made to the act than to a common turn- 
pike bill." 

It was supposed in London that the act, when 
once made law, would meet with little or no resist- 
ance; even Franklin, who usually observed so 
astutely, and knew so well how to feel the public 
pulse, fell into this error of judgment. He failed 
for once to gauge the sentiments of his countrymen. 
Hard as he had worked against the measure, he de- 
luded himself with the idea that the opposition to it 
would evaporate, and he seemed disposed to yield to 
the inevitable. Puzzling inconsistency in one who 
realised so thoroughly the danger of taxation with- 
out representation. Perhaps he was deceived by 
the optimistic opinions of his English friends. 

" The act seemed sure to enforce itself. Unless stamps were used, 
jnarriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships at sea prizes 



I70 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate 
invalid, inheritances irreclaimable, newspapers suppressed. Of all 
who acted with Grenville in the government, he never heard one 
prophecy that the measure would be resisted. ' He did not force the 
opposition to it, and would have staked his life for obedience.'" 

So says Bancroft, who adds, significantly: 

' ' It was held that the power of Parliament, according to the purest 
"Whig principles, was established over the colonies, but, in truth, the 
Stamp Act was the harbinger of American independence, and the 
knell of the unreformed House of Commons." 

Franklin wrote home to Charles Thomson, in vin- 
dication of himself, that he had taken every step in 
his power to prevent the passage of the bill : 

"But the tide was too strong for us. The nation was provoked by 
American claims of independence, and all parties joined in resolving 
by this act to settle the point. We might as well have hindered the 
sun's setting. That we could not do. But since 't is down, my 
friend, and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as good 
a night of it as we can. We may still light candles. Frugality and 
Industry will go a great way towards indemnifying us. Idleness and 
Pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we 
can get rid of the former we may easily bear the latter." 

And now Franklin made his great mistake — some- 
thing which he surely would have set down as an 
erratum had he ever brought the record of the Auto- 
biography up to this period. For when Mr. Grenville 
graciously, if shrewdly, invited the colonial agents 
to nominate the persons who were to act as stamp 
officers for America, the agent from Pennsylvania 
was foolish enough to suggest that John Hughes, 
an old and tried Philadelphia friend, should be the 
officer in that city. " You tell me," the Prime 



i765i In Thorny Paths 171 

Minister had said, " you are poor, and unable to 
bear the tax; others tell me you are able. Now 
take the business into your own hands ; you will see 
how and where it pinches, and will certainly let us 
know it, in which case it shall be eased." 

The worst that can be said of Franklin in thus 
yielding to the suggestion of Grenville is that he 
acted with gross unwisdom. Of his good faith in 
the matter there can be no possible shadow of doubt, 
although his enemies were not slow to assert that 
self-interest was the mainspring of the appointment. 
The Stamp Act being inevitable, as he must have 
reasoned, why not do his friend Hughes a good turn 
by allowing him to reap some legitimate benefit 
therefrom ? *' We none of us, I believe, foresaw or 
imagined, that this compliance with the request of 
the minister would or could have been called an ap- 
plication of ours, and adduced as a proof of our 
approbation of the act we had been opposing." 
Thus wrote the agent in explaining, much later, the 
position of himself and his colleagues, and he ob- 
served : '* Otherwise I think few of us would have 
named at all; I am sure I should not." ^ 

Yet for all that, the news of Hughes's nomination 
excited a storm of indignation in Philadelphia. 
There were some persons whose anger against 
Franklin led them to the length of declaring that he 
had tried to get for himself the position of stamp 
distributor. The philosopher began to sink in the 
estimation of the town, and some of his warmest 



* From a letter to the Rev. Dr. Tucker, Dean of Worcester. 



172 Benjamin Franklin [1762- 

friends shook their heads gravely; not that they 
questioned his integrity, but that for once they were 
bitterly disappointed in a man who heretofore had 
appeared to be a pillar of g^ood sense. " How could 
he have so mistaken the temper of America ? " they 
asked, as they heard from all quarters of the country 
of the discontent fomented by the passage of the 
hated bill. Then, in September, came the joyful 
report that the Grenville ministry had fallen ; prob- 
ably the act would be repealed. The new ministers 
did not desire repeal, but the unsuspecting Philadel- 
phians rang the church bells, drank loyal toasts, 
made bonfires, and burned in ef^gy the unfortunate 
Hughes. Was this to be the end of Franklin's 
political usefulness ? Bold, indeed, was the citizen 
who would venture to predict otherwise. 

Surely, Hughes must have anathematised the day 
upon which his patron nominated him for distribu- 
tor. Drums and bells were muffled in his dishonour ; 
he was expelled from the fire company of which he 
had been a welcome member; he was treated as a 
traitor, and made to feel that his life was by no 
means too secure. The excited Assembly protested 
vigorously against the stamp tyranny, manfully re- 
solving that '* it is the inherent birthright and in- 
dubitable privilege of every British subject to be 
taxed only by his own consent or that of his legal 
representatives," while a little later a non-importa- 
tion agreement, which was being circulated through- 
out indignant America, was signed by the leading 
merchants of Philadelphia. By this compact it was 
determined, among other precautions, to order no 



1765] In Thorny Paths 173 

English goods during the enforcement of the Stamp 
Act, and many were the subscribers to what we 
might now term the patriotic boycott. Yes, and 
John Dickinson, he who had so vaHantly defended 
the toryism of the proprietors (how suddenly had 
the old controversy sunk into insignificance !) came 
out in an address, anonymous but to the purpose, 
warning his countrymen of the dangers of the tax. 

" Think, oh ! think," he says, in urging unflinching obedience to the 
non-importation agreement, "of the endless misery you must entail 
upon yourselves and your country by touching the pestilential cargoes 
that have been sent you. Destruction lurks within them. To re- 
ceive them is death. It is worse than death ; it is Slavery ! " 

Thus did the spirit of defiance take shape until the 
enforcement of the tax became a practical impossi- 
bility. The public offices were closed ; the detested 
stamps were burned with ceremony; legal papers 
remained undrawn ; English manufactures were 
tabooed, and home-spun clothes became not only a 
sign of protest, but a fad as well. 

One ill-advised step had cost Franklin dear. Next 
to Hughes he was the most unpopular man in the 
province. Not only were his motives assailed (some 
of his enemies pretended to believe that he had 
secretly favoured the passage of the Stamp Act 
from the first), but even his family came in for a 
share of abuse. It was feared that Mrs. Franklin 
and her daughter might suffer from the violence of 
the mob ; Governor Franklin wanted them both to 
seek a temporary home in New Jersey. The former 
lady has left us, in a letter to the husband she would 
never see again, a record of her unpleasant ordeal. 



174 Benjamin Franklin [1765 

" I was for nine days kept in a continual hurry by people to remove, 
and Sally was persuaded to go to Burlington for safety. Cousin 
Davenport came and told me that more than twenty people had told 
him it was his duty to be with me. I said I was pleased to receive 
civility from anybody. So he staid with me some time ; towards 
night I said he should fetch a gun or two, as we had none. I sent 
to ask my brother to come and bring his gun also, so we turned one 
room into a magazine ; I ordered some sort of defence upstairs, such 
as I could manage myself. I said, when I was advised to remove, 
that I was very sure you had done nothing to hurt anybody, nor had 
I given any offence to any person at all, nor would I be made uneasy 
by anybody, nor would I stir or show the least uneasiness, but if any 
one came to disturb me I would show a proper resentment." 

Plucky matron ! She was not a woman to set the 
placid Delaware on fire, but the blood of heroines 
flowed in her veins. 

As it happened, Mrs. Franklin was not molested ; 
so she could dismantle that improvised magazine, 
dismiss her cousin, and send over to Jersey for the 
timid Sarah. The hostility toward her lord and 
master had its most dangerous manifestation in a 
vast deal of angry condemnation, and in the printing 
of some scurrilous literature. Perhaps the doctor's 
enemies hoped that he would resign his offices, come 
meekly home to Philadelphia, and sink into the 
semi-obscurity of private life. If they fondly cher- 
ished any such idea they were doomed to bitter dis- 
appointment. Benjamin Franklin was not the man 
to be overwhelmed by a transient wave of ill-temper. 






CHAPTER VII 

WORKING FOR THE COLONIES 

1 766-1 773 

I AD it remained for Parliament to repeal 
the Stamp Act for purely sentimen- 
tal reasons — that is to say, merely 
from a desire to show a love for the 
colonies — then might the Americans 
have awaited deliverance in vain. The new minis- 
try, headed by the Marquis of Rockingham, was at 
first in no mood for reversing the policy of Grenville 
and his associates, nor did it expect to treat America 
otherwise than as a rebellious child who stood in 
need of a thorough disciplining. But when the re- 
fusal of the provincials to buy British goods began 
to affect the interests of the mother country, caus- 
ing the home producers to rise up in alarm, and 
when it became apparent that the tax would be re- 
sisted unto the bitter end, a reaction quickly set in, 
and the government discovered that it was not 
dealing with a flock of meek, spiritless sheep. What 
was more, the courageous Pitt, who had been ill 
when the resolution to impose the tax was taken, 

175 



176 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

now appeared in the Commons to valiantly defend 
the cause of his kin beyond the sea. " We are 
told," he said, " that America is obstinate — that 
America is almost in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice 
that America has resisted ; three millions of people 
so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily 
to submit to be slaves would have been fit instru- 
ments to make slaves of all the rest." 

So forcibly did the expediency of repeal make 
itself felt that the ministers soon opposed the efforts 
of Grenville to pledge the House to the enforcement 
of the measure, nor was it long before Parliament 
was employed in hearing testimony, as to the effect 
of the tax, from merchants, manufacturers, revenue 
officers, and many others. Here was just the op- 
portunity for Franklin, who had been on the alert 
to take advantage of the ministerial change of heart 
by strenuously preaching repeal, and when he was 
asked to appear at the bar of the House, to shed 
added light upon the situation, he rose to the occa- 
sion in a fashion that displayed in their greatest 
brilliance his abilities and mental quickness. For 
clearness, conciseness of statement, and the faculty 
of making the very most of his case in a compara- 
tively short compass, nothing could have surpassed 
the famous examination of which he was the imper- 
turbable hero. It matters not that he knew before- 
hand, through discussion with his friends, the nature 
of some of the questions to be put to him ; the fact 
remains that his answers, several of which were 
shrewd replies to unexpected queries from his ene- 
mies, show us the man in his finest form as a states- 



r773l Working for the Colonies 177 

man keen in observation, impressiv^e in conviction, 
and powerful in coping with dangerous opposition. 

" The dignity of his bearing, his self-possession, the promptness and 
propriety with which he replied to each interrogatory, the profound 
knowledge he displayed upon every topic presented to him, his per- 
fect acquaintance with the political condition and internal affairs of 
his country, the fearlessness with which he defended the late doings 
of his countrymen, and censured the measures of Parliament, his 
pointed expressions and characteristic manner ; all these combined 
to rivet the attention, and excite the astonishment of his audience." 

Thus wrote the admiring Sparks, who went even 
further, however, and fell into the error of stating 
that the doctor knew not beforehand the nature or 
the form of any one of the questions. 

When asked, " Do you think it right that America 
should be protected by this country, and pay no part 
of the expense ? " (a question which the Grenville 
party designed as a " poser "), Franklin quickly an- 
swered : " That is not the case. The colonies raised, 
clothed, and paid during the last war near twenty- 
five thousand men, and spent many millions " — and 
to the further interrogation, " Were you not reim- 
bursed by Parliament?" he replied: ** We were 
only reimbursed what, in your opinion, we had 
advanced beyond our proportion, or beyond what 
might reasonably be expected from us; and it was a 
very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in 
particular, disbursed about ;^5oo,ooo, and the reim- 
bursements, in the whole, did not exceed £60,000." 

So the inquisition went on, with Franklin always 
ready, always having the advantage, until one hun- 
dred and seventy-four questions had been answered 



i;^ Benjamin Franklin 1766- 

with inimitable spirit and telling effect. To reproduce 
the list would be to transgress the limit of space set 
for this memoir, but, ere we leave such a triumphant 
episode of our hero's career, let us recall a few of 
the most characteristic replies. For instance : 

" Do you not think the people of America would submit to pay the 
stamp duty, if it was moderated ?" 

" No, never, unless compelled by force of arms." 

"What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before 
the year 1763?" 

"The best in the world. . . . They were governed by this 
country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper ; they 
were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection 
for Great Britain ; for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a 
fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Na- 
tives of Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to be an 
Old-England man Via.?,, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave 
a kind of rank among us." 

" And what is their temper now? " 

" O, very much altered." 

"What is your opinion of a further tax, imposed on the same 
principle with that of the Stamp Act? How would the Americans 
receive it? " 

"Just as they do this. They would not pay it." 

"You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, 
and object to the right of Parliament only in laying internal taxes ; 
how can you show that there is any kind of difference between the 
two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid ? " 

" I think the difference is very great. An ^x^^tz/a!/ tax is a duty 
laid on commodities imported ; that duty is added to the first cost 
and other charges on the commodity, and when it is offered to sale, 
makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, 
they refuse it ; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax 
is forced from the people without their consent, if not laid by their 
own representatives. The Stamp Act says, we shall have no com- 
merce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither pur- 
chase, nor grant, nor recover debts ; we shall neither marry nor 
make our wills, unless we pay such and such sums ; and thus it is 



1773] Working for the Colonies 179 

intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences 
of refusing to pay it." 

"Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into 
execution ?" 

" I do not see how a military force can be applied to that purpose." 

"Why may it not?" 

" Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find nobody 
in arms ; what are they then to do ! They cannot force a man to take 
stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebel- 
lion ; they may indeed make one." 

" Supposing the Stamp Act continued and enforced, do you imag- 
ine that ill-humour will induce the Americans to give as much for 
worse manufactures of their own, and use them, preferable to better 
of ours? " 

"Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one passion 
as another, their resentment as their pride." 

" If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the assem- 
blies of America to acknowledge the rights of Parliament to tax 
them, and would they erase their resolutions? " 

" No, never." 

" Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase them ? " 

" No power, how great soever, can force men to change their 
opinions." 

"What used to be the pride of the Americans?" 

" To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain." 

" What is now their pride ?" 

" To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new 
ones." 

Nobly had Franklin vindicated himself. In Lon- 
don he was the most talked-of man of the moment, 
while later on, when the news of his brave defence 
and of the subsequent repeal of the tax reached his 
own country, there was much rejoicing, with many 
a kind word for the upholder of colonial liberties, 
and some pretty drinking of toasts in his honour. 
The great man was placed once again upon the 
pedestal of popularity. For shortly after this ex- 



i8o Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

amination came the death of the Stamp Act, much 
to the disgust of George III., who had to be con- 
tent with the passage of a Declaratory Act setting 
forth ** the right of ParUament to bind the colonies 
in all cases whatsoever." Not love for America, 
but an appeal to practical issues had won the day, and 
in strengthening the force of that argument no one 
had done such signal service as Benjamin Franklin.* 
In June Franklin wrote to the Assembly asking 
for leave to return home the following spring (a re- 
quest which was practically ignored by his reappoint- 
ment as agent); he then set out for a trip on the 
Continent, and soon began to wonder how the anti- 
proprietaries would fare during the Philadelphia 
elections of the coming October. In spite of the 
re-established popularity of the philosopher he still 
had some bitter enemies in the Quaker city — 
enemies who could see neither virtue or honesty in 
him — and squibs and lying pamphlets were again 
used as a medium for defeating the " old ticket " 
party. It was asserted, for instance, that Franklin 
had " aimed a poisoned dagger at the breast of his 
parent country." In its issue of September i8th 
the Pennsylvania Journal of the Messrs. Bradford 
came out with ''An Essay, Towards discovering the 
Authors and Promoters of The memorable Stamp 
Act," which was ostensibly a letter " from a Gentle- 
man in London, to his friend in Philadelphia." The 
writer broadly intimated that the real originator of 
the Stamp Act was the agent himself. 

* The bill for repeal received the King's assent on March i8, 
1766. 



1773] Working for the Colonies i8i 

" He proposed this scheme to General Braddock, and there are per- 
sons of good credit in Maryland who heard him deliver his opinion 
to the General. An opinion which he has cultivated with assiduity, 
until he found by the issue that it was vain and chimerical. We do 
not affirm, that he was the very person who proposed the act to 

G le ; yet we can even give the strongest proofs of this fact, that 

the nature of the thing can admit of. The act was doubtless formed 

and projected under the joint influence of Lord Bute and G e 

G le ; and Dr. F n's chief interest at court is with Lord Bute. 

F n's friends in Philadelphia boasted of his interest with the late 

ministry ; and when Mr. H s told Mr. F n that his want of 

interest at court was objected as an argument against his appoint- 
ment as agent, F n forgot his usual reserve, and swore by his 

Maker, that it was false, that he had interest with Lord Bute, and 

asserted that he thought he had also some interest with G e 

G le." 

To read on further, and accept the statement of the 
** Essay " as truth, was to beUeve that the aforesaid 

" Dr. F n ", was nothing more or less than a low, 

unprincipled schemer, from whose machinations 
America would never be safe unless he reposed at 
the bottom of the sea. But in this instance calumny 
was unsuccessful, and the ** old " party came in the 
victors. 

*' The old ticket forever," wrote Sarah Franklin to Governor Frank- 
lin, of New Jersey — who, by the way, was developing into a pro- 
nounced Tory official, — " the old ticket forever ! We have it by 34 
votes ! ' God bless our worthy and noble agent, and all his family ! ' 
were the joyful words we were waked with at two or three o'clock 
this morning, by the White Oaks." 

But events of national import are soon to hurry on 
so fast that a little thing like a Philadelphia election 
must sink into insignificance, and the agent from 
Pennsylvania (who will also in turn become agent 



1 82 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

for Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts) will 
have much to worry him as new causes for tension 
arise ominously between the colonies and the 
mother country. 

" To tranquillise America," says Bancroft, " no more was wanting 
than a respect for its rights, and some accommodation to its con- 
firmed habits and opinions. The colonies had, each of them, a 
direction of its own and a character of its own, which required to be 
harmoniously reconciled with the motion impressed upon it by the 
imperial legislature. But this demanded study, self-possession, and 
candour. The parliament of that day, recognising no reciprocity of 
obligations, thought nothing so wrong as thwarting its will." 

Such was the temper of a Parliament which, in the 
summer of 1767, passed the Townshend bill taxing 
the colonies by duties on their imports of paper, 
glass, painter's colours, lead, and tea, and encourag- 
ing the billeting of royal troops upon the Americans. 
Twenty Franklins could not have stemmed this tide 
of legislative stupidity, nor could twenty Parlia- 
ments have prevented the storm of opposition 
which soon arose from beyond the sea. These 
taxes, ** external " though they were, and the dan- 
gerous way wherein the revenue therefrom was to 
be appropriated — the direct payment by the crown 
of American civil officers and of an American stand- 
ing army — filled the hearts of all true Americans 
with a new dread, a new grievance against the 
parent country. As certain Bostonians said: 

" We shall be obliged to maintain in luxury sycophants, court para- 
sites, and hungry dependents, who will be sent over to watch and 
oppress those who support them. . . . The governors will be 
men rewarded for despicable service, hackneyed in deceit and av- 



1773] Working for the Colonies 183 

arice ; or some noble scoundrel, who has spent his fortune in every 
kind of debauchery." * 

In fine, if the new policy was to be carried to its 
natural and logical conclusion, the provincials would 
be turned into so many puppets, made to dance on 
strings pulled either at Westminster or — since King 
George wished to govern — at Windsor Castle. The 
colonial assemblies might adjourn forever ; free 
political action on the part of their constituents 
would become a thing of the past. 

No one foresaw more forcibly than did Franklin 
the perils accruing from the rancour which had now 
set in against the " rebellious " colonies — a rancour 
which had for its most illustrious instigator, as the 
American little realised until much later, the sover- 
eign himself. The King was well-intentioned, but 
narrow, bigoted, mentally short-sighted, and in his 
eyes the independent spirit of the provincials, as 
displayed in their protest against the injustices of 
Parliament, fell little short of high treason. There 
were many other eyes, unfortunately, which were 
blinded in the same way, and try as he did to open 
them by numerous letters to the London newspapers, 
the agent from Pennsylvania must have felt that his 
task was a hard one. So it may have been with a 
not over-light heart that he crossed the Channel late 
in the summer of 1767, and visited Paris, accom- 
panied by Sir John Pringle, physician to the virtu- 
ous consort of obstinate King George. Yet he had 
not lost the faculty of enjoying a holiday; he found 
his trip a source of diversion, and was not the less 

* Baxicxoii's, History of the United States of America ; last revision. 



184 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

pleased, of course, because of the respect with which 
he and the worthy Sir John were treated. The 
travellers were duly " presented " to the royal 
family of France, then at Versailles, and Franklin 
writes to a friend that his Majesty, Louis XV., 

did me too the honour of taking some notice of 
me ; that is saying enough ; for I would not have 
you think me so much pleased with this King and 
Queen, as to have a whit less regard than I used to 
have for ours. No Frenchman shall go beyond me 
in thinking my own King and Queen the very best 
in the world, and the most amiable." Here was 
loyalty with a vengeance. Had the King whom he 
eulogised as the " very best in the world " been 
endowed with more common sense and political in- 
sight, Franklin might have gone on admiring him 
unto the end of the chapter. 

In the meantime the outcry raised in America 
against the imposition of the new taxes, and the 
resolution of many of her inhabitants to resort again 
to the effective weapon of non-importation, acted as 
fuel to the fire already kindled by the British op- 
pressors of the colonies. On his return to London, 
therefore, Franklin did all that he could, by pen and 
in conversation, to place the American side of the 
controversy in the proper light. He might have 
saved himself the trouble, creditable as was the 
effort; English political arrogance had now reached 
such a momentum that nothing save the successful 
ending of the revolutionary struggle could stop its 
course. Then, too, came changes in the ministry, 
and he was called upon to exert a diplomatic reserve 



1773] Working for the Colonies 185 

between the opposite intentions of Lord Sandwich, 
the new Postmaster-General, who wished to oust 
him from his postmaster-generalship of the colonies, 
and the Duke of Grafton, who wanted the philoso- 
pher appointed to some important office directly in 
contact with the members of the cabinet. " I am 
told," Franklin writes to his son, " there has been 
a talk of getting me appointed under-secretary to 
Lord Hillsborough ; but with little likelihood, as it 
is a settled point here that I am too much of an 
American." 

Lord Hillsborough was the Secretary of State for 
America, and it was thought by the friends of the 
colonies that much good might be accomplished by 
bringing into his department so distinguished a 
champion of provincial rights as the doctor. Frank- 
lin, on his part, was ready to serve if he could fulfil 
any useful mission by so doing, but it is evident that 
he did not look forward to the task with any en- 
thusiasm. As he told Governor Franklin : 

" I did not think fit to decline any favour so great a man [as the Duke 
of Grafton] had expressed an inclination to do me, because at court, 
if one shows an unwillingness to be obliged, it is often construed as a 
mark of mental hostility, and one makes an enemy ; yet, so great is 
my inclination to be at home and at rest, that I shall not be sorry if 
this business falls through, and I am suffered to retire to my old 
post ; nor indeed very sorry if they take that from me, too, on ac- 
count of my zeal for America, in which some of my friends have 
hinted to me that I have been too open." 

The scheme to place the American in the English 
service did not result in anything. This was fortun- 
ate, seeing that the appointment must inevitably 



1 86 Benjamin Franklin ['766- 

have tied his hands, rather than have given him a 
freer rein. His enemies contented themselves with 
abusing him in the newspapers, hoping thereby to 
provoke him to resign his postmaster-generalship of 
the colonies, but Franklin said, with that calm 
humour which never failed him: ** In this they are 
not likely to succeed, I being deficient in that Chris- 
tian virtue of resignation. If they would have my 
office they must take it." 

And now events were marching on across the 
water, and the doctor could only hope against hope, 
as the situation grew worse and the bonds between 
the mother country and her rightly defiant children 
seemed more and more in danger of being rent 
asunder. His experience, too, was not always 
pleasant ; at the beginning of the year 1771 (ten 
months after the presence of British troops in Bos- 
ton, kept there to overawe the people, had led to 
the sad conflict termed the " massacre "), he had a 
shining illustration of the amenities of party hate. 
His adversary was Lord Hillsborough, who by 
reason of his "conceit, wrong-headedness, obstinacy, 
and passion," was probably the very worst Secretary 
of State for America that the English Government, 
or the distressed colonies, could have possessed. 
No one had a greater contempt for his limited abil- 
ities and his narrowness of view than did Franklin. 
But when the latter was appointed agent for Massa- 
chusetts he went, in duty bound, to report the 
circumstance officially to his lordship, and the recep- 
tion he there met with must have intensified a hun- 
dred-fold his dislike for the Secretary. Franklin 



1773] Working for the Colonies 187 

has himself left for posterity a dramatic record of 
the interview, and it forms such interesting reading 
that we may be pardoned for giving it in full. 
Here are the " minutes ": 

" Wednesday, i6 January, 1771. I went this morning to wait on 
Lord Hillsborough. The porter at first denied his lordship, on 
which I left my name and drove off. But before the coach got out 
of the square, the coachman heard a call, turned and went back to 
the door, when the porter came and said, ' His lordship will see you. 
Sir.' I was shown into the levee room, where I found Governor 
Bernard, who, I understand, attends there constantly. Several other 
gentlemen were there attending, with whom I sat down a few min- 
utes, when Secretary Pownall * came out to us, and said his lordship 
desired I would come in. I was pleased with this ready admission 
and preference, having sometimes waited three or four hours for my 
turn ; and, being pleased, I could more easily put on the open, cheer- 
ful countenance that my friends advised me to wear. His lordship 
came towards me and said, ' I was dressing in order to go to court ; 
but, hearing that you were at the door, who are a man of business, I 
determined to see you immediately.' I thanked his lordship and 
said that my business at present was not much ; it was only to pay 
my respects to his lordship, and to acquaint him with my appoint- 
ment by the House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay to be 
their agent here, in which station if I could be of any service — (I 
was going on to say — ' to the public, I should be very happy ; * but 
his lordship, whose countenance changed at my naming that province, 
cut me short by saying, with something between a smile and a sneer) : 

L. H. I must set you right there, Mr. Franklin ; you are not 
agent. 

B. F. Why, my lord ? 

L. H. You are not appointed. 

B. F. I do not understand your lordship ; I have the appoint- 
ment in my pocket. 

L. H. You are mistaken ; I have later and better advices. I 
have a letter from Governor Hutchinson ; he would not give his 
assent to the bill. 



* Secretary to the Board of Trade. 



1 88 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

B. F. There was no bill, my lord ; it was a vote of the House. 

L. H. There was a bill presented to the Governor for the pur- 
pose of appointing you and another, one Dr. Lee, I think he is 
called, to which the Governor refused his assent. 

B. F. I cannot understand this, my lord ; I think there must 
be some mistake in it. Is your lordship quite sure that you have 
such a letter ? 

L. H. I will convince you of it directly. {Rings the bell.) 
Mr. Pownall will come in and satisfy you. 

B. F. It is not necessary that I should now detain your lordship 
from dressing. You are going to court. I will wait on your lord- 
ship another time. 

L. H. No, stay; he will come immediately. {To the servant.) 
Tell Mr. Pownall I want him. 

(Mr. Pownall comes in.) 

L. H. Have not you at hand Governor Hutchinson's letter, 
mentioning his refusing his assent to the bill for appointing Dr. 
Franklin agent ? 

Sec. p. My lord ? 

L. H. Is there not such a letter ? 

Sec. p. No, my lord ; there is a letter relating to some bill for 
the payment of a salary to Mr. De Berdt, and I think to some other 
agent, to which the Governor had refused his assent. 

L. H. And is there nothing in the letter to the purpose I 
mention ? 

Sec. p. No, my lord. 

B. F. I thought it could not well be, my lord, as my letters 
are by the last ships, and they mention no such thing. Here is the 
authentic copy of the vote of the House appointing me, in which 
there is no mention of any act intended. Will your lordship please 
to look at it ? {With seeming tinwillingness he takes it, but does not 
look into it.) 

L. H. An information of this kind is not properly brought to 
me as Secretary of State. The Board of Trade is the proper place. 

B, F. I will leave the paper then with Mr, Pownall to be 

L. H. {Hastily.) To what end would you leave it with him? 

B. F. To be entered on the minutes of that Board, as usual. 

L. H. {Angrily.) It shall not be entered there. No such 
paper shall be entered there, while I have anything to do with the 
business of that Board. The House of Representatives has no right 



1773] Working for the Colonies 189 

to appoint an agent. We shall take no notice of any agents, but 
such as are appointed by acts of Assembly, to which the Governor 
gives his assent. We have had confusion enough already. Here is 
one agent appointed by the Council, another by the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Which of these is agent for the province ? Who are we 
to hear in provincial affairs ? An agent appointed by act of Assem- 
bly we can understand. No other will be attended to for the future, 
I can assure you. 

B. F. I cannot conceive, my lord, why the consent of the Gov- 
ernor should be thought necessary to the appointment of an agent for 
the people. It seems to me that 

L. H. ( With a mixed look of anger and contempt^ I shall not 
enter into a dispute with^'^w, Sir, upon this subject. 

B. F. I beg your lordship's pardon; I do not presume to dis- 
pute with your lordship ; I would only say, that it seems to me, that 
every body of men, who cannot appear in person, where business re- 
lating to them may be transacted, should have a right to appear by 
an agent. The concurrence of the Governor does not seem to me 
necessary. It is the business of the people, that is to be done ; he is 
not one of them ; he is himself an agent. 

L. H. {Hastily.) Whose agent is he ? * 

B. F. The King's. 

L. H. No such matter. He is one of the corporation by the 
province charter. No agent can be appointed but by an act, nor any 
act pass without his assent. Besides, this proceeding is directly con- 
trary to express instructions. 

B. F. I did not know there had been such instructions. I am 
not concerned in any offence against them, and 

L. H. Yes, your offering such a paper to be entered is an 
offence against them. {Folding it up again without having read a 
word of it ^ No such appointment shall be entered. When I came 
into the administration of American affairs I found them in great dis- 
order. By tny firmness they are now something mended ; and, while 
I have the honour to hold the seals, I shall continue the same conduct, 
the sdiVCiG^ firmness. I think my duty to the master I serve, and to 
the government of this nation requires it of me. If that conduct is 
not approved, they may take my office from me when they please. I 
shall make them a bow, and thank them ; I shall resign with pleas- 
ure. That gentleman knows it {pointing to Mr. Fo7vnall), but, 
while I continue in it, I shall resolutely persevere in the same firm- 



190 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

ness. {Spoken with g)eat xvarmth^ and turning pale in his discourse, 
as if he was angry at something or somebody besides the agent, and of 
more consequence to himself.) 

B. F. {Reaching out his hand for the paper, which his lordship 
retu7-ned to him.) I beg your lordship's pardon for taking up so 
much of your time. It is, I believe, of no great importance whether 
the appointment is acknowledged or not, for I have not the least 
conception that an agent can at present be of any use to any of the 
colonies. I shall therefore give your lordship no further trouble. 
( Withdreiv.y 

So ends Franklin's curious recital. " Firmness," 
even unto the point of idiocy and tyranny, was the 
remedy which childish statesmen of the Hillsborough 
cult wished to employ in the curing of colonial dis- 
content. ** The Americans," they said in effect, 
" are a lot of unruly schoolboys; we are their 
masters, and must whip them into obedience." 

Lord Hillsborough, as a man of narrow mind but 
wide conceit, looked upon the agent's own " firm- 
ness " as rank impertinence, and did not hesitate to 
characterise him, behind his back, as a republican, 

a factious, mischievous fellow," and the like. But 
the doctor stood to his guns, and was rather amused, 
when he was dining in Dublin some time later with 
the Lord Lieutenant, to find among the company 
the Secretary of State for America. His lordship 
was most civil to the philosopher, and pressed him 
to visit his country-place in the north of Ireland — 
an invitation which was gracefully accepted for the 
twofold reason, perhaps, that the traveller knew 
the value of reconciliation, and had tasted, too, of 
the charming hospitality dispensed in the home of 
an English or an Irish gentleman. Before leaving 



1773] Working for the Colonies 191 

Dublin, however, Franklin indulged in a shrewd bit 
of diplomacy by interviewing the patriots of the 
Celtic Parliament, whom he found disposed to be 
very friendly to America. This sentiment he tried 
to strengthen, ** with the expectation," as he says in 
one of his letters, " that our growing weight might 
in time be thrown into their scale, and, by joining 
our interests with theirs a more equitable treatment 
from this nation might be obtained for them as well 
as for us." 

As for my Lord of Hillsborough, he proved an 
admirable host, doing everything possible for the 
comfort and entertainment of Franklin, and discuss- 
ing American affairs in a spirit of unexpected mod- 
eration. In short, to quote the observing doctor, 

he seemed extremely solicitous to impress me, 
and the colonies through me, with a good opinion 
of him. All which I could not but wonder at, know- 
ing that he likes neither them nor me ; and I thought 
it inexplicable but on the supposition, that he 
apprehended an approaching storm, and was de- 
sirous of lessening beforehand the number of ene- 
mies he had so imprudently created." "^ It seems 
like a bit of retributive justice that the storm which 
soon broke over the head of Hillsborough, and 
brought about his retirement from the ministry, 
was indirectly stirred up by the agent himself. 
The latter, who had ever been a great believer 
in the colonisation of Western America, was inter- 
ested in a company formed to plant a large settle- 



* Letter to Thomas Gushing, dated London, January 13, 1772. 



192 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

ment in Illinois, and in regard to which Hillsborough 
persuaded the Lords of Trade to adopt an adverse 
report. Franklin replied in writing to the objections 
of the Secretary, who feared that the proposed 
colony would become independent of Great Britain; 
the Privy Council took up the matter, approved of 
the scheme, and Lord Hillsborough forthwith re- 
signed, much to the delight of his fellow-ministers. 

" At length we have got rid of Lord Hillsborough, and Lord Dart- 
mouth takes his place, to the great satisfaction of all the friends of 
America," writes Franklin to his son, remarking that " all his brother 
ministers disliked him extremely, and wished for a fair occasion of 
tripping up his heels ; so, seeing that he made a point of defeating 
our scheme, they made another of supporting it, on purpose to mor- 
tify him, which they knew his pride could not bear." * 

The doctor was not vindictive, but he would have 
been a little more than human if he had not rejoiced 
at the defeat of a minister so dangerous to the fate 
of the colonies. Perhaps, too, he thought of the in- 
sulting reception accorded him in trying to thank 
his lordship for the civilities extended during that 
trip to Ireland. Four visits did the forgiving Frank- 
lin make to the Earl, now returned to London ; each 
time he got a curt *' Not at home " in reward. The 
last time was on a levee day; carriages were at 



* Parton points out that the dislike felt for Lord Hillsborough by 
his colleagues does not wholly explain the triumph of Franklin. 
" He had induced, it appears, three members of the Privy Council to 
become shareholders in the [Illinois] company. So far as the inter- 
ests of the shareholders were concerned, their triumph was a barren 
one, since the formalities requisite to give validity to the grant were 
never permitted to be completed. This may have been Hills- 
borough's work, after all." 



1^73] Working for the Colonies 193 

Hillsborough's door, and if ever a man was at home 
the Secretary of State for America was the indi- 
vidual. As was his wont, Franklin drove up in his 
coach, and the driver, having alighted, was opening 
the door of the carriage when the porter ran out and 
insolently rebuked him " for opening the door be- 
fore he had inquired whether my lord was at home." 
Then, turning to the visitor, the servant said : " My 
lord is not at home." The agent for four great 
American provinces sent away from the house of 
the Secretary of State for America by an impertinent 
lackey! No wonder, with such a brotherly spirit 
abroad, that the revolution was impending. 

Yet Franklin flattered himself that with the acces- 
sion of Lord Dartmouth affairs were to take a more 
favourable turn, and he began to hope, in a vague 
way, that ere many months he might be enabled to 
close up his official labours as a prelude to returning 
home. He was now (1772) sixty-six years old, and 
the comforts of his new house in Philadelphia, and 
the charm of a quiet old age, eloquently appealed 
to his taste for a dignified idleness. To be sure, 
there was much to please him in the whirl of Lon- 
don life. Dining, wining, going to the play, sus- 
taining a voluminous correspondence with friends 
and relations, watching the ministry, attending to 
the English business of four colonies, and keeping 
his pen well inked for the defence of his country — 
the wonder is how he accomplished so much. His 
literary services in behalf of America included the 
publishing of a satirical set of " Rules for Reducing 

a Great Empire tea Small One," — a fling at Hills- 
13 



194 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

borough — and of a burlesque " Edict of the King of 
Prussia," which created a veritable sensation, and 
was for the moment believed, if only by a few 
woolly-heads, to be a genuine pronunciamento from 
the great Frederick. The King set forth, osten- 
sibly, that as ** the first German settlements made 
in the island of Britain were by colonies of people 
subject to our renowned ducal ancestors, and drawn 
from their dominions, under the conduct of Hengist, 
Horsa, Hella, Uffa, Cerdicus, Ida, and others"; 
and as " the said colonies have flourished under the 
protection of our august house for ages past; have 
never been emancipated therefrom ; and yet have 
hitherto yielded little profit to the same ; and 
whereas we ourself have in the last war fought for 
and defended the said colonies against the power of 
France," etc., it therefore became ** just and ex- 
pedient that a revenue should be raised from the 
said colonies in Britain, towards our indemnification ; 
and that those who are descendants of our ancient 
subjects, and thence still owe us due obedience, 
should contribute to the replenishing of our royal 
coffers." Thereupon the fictitious King of Prussia 
went on to levy heavy customs duties upon British 
imports and exports, and to lay iniquitous restric- 
tions upon the internal trade and manufactures of 
the island, 

" And lastly," said the " Edict," " being willing further to favour 
our said colonies in Britain, we do hereby also ordain and command, 
that all the thieves, highway and street robbers, house-breakers, for- 
gerers, murderers, s-d-tes, and villains of every denomination, who 
have forfeited their lives to the law of Prussia, but whom we, in our 
great clemency, do not think fit here to hang, shall be emptied out of 



1773] Working for the Colonies 195 

our gaols into the said island of Great Britain, for the better peopling 
of that country. 

" We flatter ourselves that these our royal regulations and com- 
mands will be thought Jus f and reasonad/e by our much favoured col- 
onists in England ; the said regulations being copied from their 
statutes of loth and nth William III., C. lo, 5th George II., C. 
22, 23d George II., C. 26, 4th George I., C. 11, and from other 
equitable laws made by their Parliament ; or from instructions given 
by their princes ; or from resolutions of both Houses, entered into for 
the good government of their own colonies in Ireland and America. 

" And all persons in the said Island are hereby cautioned not 
to oppose in any wise the execution of this our Edict, or any part 
thereof, such opposition being high treason : of which all who are 
suspected shall be transported in fetters from Britain to Prussia, there 
to be tried and executed according to the Prussian law." 

This product of Franklin's imaginative muse was, 
as need hardly be pointed out, an exquisite satirical 
paraphrase of the selfish policy pursued by the Eng- 
lish Government for many years past toward the 
colonies, and the copies of the Public Advertiser, 
wherein it was published, in apparent seriousness, 
sold with unexpected rapidity. Perhaps the sharp- 
est hit of all was in the editorial note appended to 
the pretended ** Edict " — " All here think the asser- 
tion it concludes with, that these regulations are 
copied from acts of the English Parliament respect- 
ing their colonies, a very injurious one; it being 
impossible to believe that a people distinguished for 
their love of liberty, a nation so wise, so liberal in 
its sentiments, so just and equitable towards its 
neighbours, should, from mean and injudicious views 
of petty immediate profit, treat its own children in a 
manner so arbitrary and tyrannical! " 

At first the authorship of the " Edict " was not 



196 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

generally attributed to Franklin, although it is 
curious that those who knew his peculiar vein of 
humour, and his talent for veiling satire under the 
guise of matter-of-fact statement, did not at once 
suspect him. Several friends did, indeed, immedi- 
ately light upon the real writer of the paper, yet 
the great world of London, interested as it was in 
the publication, proved not so quick. Lord Mans- 
field shook his august head, and remarked that the 
** Edict " was ** very able and very artful indeed," 
but that it would do mischief by giving a bad im- 
pression of the measures of government and encour- 
aging the colonies " in their contumacy." Others 
averred that it was the " keenest and severest " 
piece which had appeared for many a day ; a few, as 
before indicated, actually fell into the trap, and 
thought for the nonce that Frederick contemplated 
the conquest of Great Britain. Meanwhile the 
" King of Prussia," otherwise Dr. Franklin, laughed 
in his sleeve, and kept silent. He was one of a 
house-party at Lord le Despencer's on the morning 
when the post brought down into the country the 
number of the Advertiser containing the " Edict." 
Paul Whitehead, " who runs early through all the 
papers, and tells the company what he finds re- 
markable," came bustling into the breakfast-room 
(where were the philosopher, the host, and the rest 
of the party), with the paper in his agitated hand. 
" Here," cried he, " here 's news for ye! Here 's 
the King of Prussia claiming a right to this king- 
dom! " Everybody looked surprised, including the 
astute Franklin. When Whitehead had read two 



1773] Working for the Colonies 197 

or three paragraphs of the exciting document one 
of the guests roundly abused his Majesty of Prussia 
for his impudence. ** I dare say," he said, " we 
shall hear by next post that he is upon his march 
with one hundred thousand men to back this! ** 
Whereupon Whitehead, shrewder than the rest of 
the company, began to realise the situation, and 
turning to the author, he exclaimed: "I '11 be 
hanged if this is not some of your American jokes 
upon us." " The reading went on, and ended with 
abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that 
it was a fair hit; and the piece was cut out of the 
paper and preserved in my lord's collection." ^ In 
his " Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small 
One," the satire is even more trenchant. 

" Take special care," he tells all ministers who have the manage- 
ment of extensive dominions, " that the provinces are never incorpo- 
rated with the mother coicntry ; that they do not enjoy the same 
common rights, the same privileges in commerce ; and that they are 
governed by severer laws, all of your enacting, without allowing 
them any share in the choice of the legislators." 

This and the other rules had about them more sad 
truth than burlesque, and served better than a thous- 
and pages of commonplace complaint to accentuate 
the blundering and pig-headedness of successive 
English ministries in their dealings toward Amer- 
ica. Had Franklin done nothing else for the colo- 
nies than to write the ** Rules " and the " Edict," 
his name would have deserved a place on the scroll 
of American patriotism. No words of his could 

* This episode is described by Franklin in a letter to his son 
dated October 6, 1773. 



198 Benjamin Franklin [1766- 

avert the inevitable, yet happy the cause which 
possessed so acute a champion. 

Anxiously did this champion await the mails from 
home as they came in slowly and irregularly ; eagerly 
did he digest the news from Massachusetts — indom- 
itable, defiant Massachusetts. How had events 
shaped themselves in Boston since the fatal March 
evening of 1770 when the presence there of British 
regiments led to the conflict with the populace, and 
the killing and wounding of some citizens ? In the 
following April the duties imposed by the Town- 
shend bill, saving those on tea, were repealed ; 
whereupon it was agreed that no tea should be im- 
ported ; then came the constitutional wrangles be- 
tween the patriots and Governor Hutchinson, that 
staunch defender of English so-called prerogative, 
and finally the holding of a town meeting (October, 
1772) to protest against the dangerous, liberty- 
subverting policy whereby the provincial judges now 
received their salaries direct from the crown, and 
were removable at the pleasure of the King. From 
this gathering dated the formation of the famous 
** Committee of Correspondence." The committee 
was organised to state the rights of the colonies, and 
the rights of the people of Massachusetts in particu- 
lar, ** as men, as Christians, and as subjects"; it 
helped materially to establish communication be- 
tween the several provinces ; and it gave impetus to 
the plan of colonial union.* By the autumn of 1773 
the agitation against the importation, by the East 

* See " The Revolution Impending," as treated by Mellen Cham- 
berlain in vol, vi. of the Narrative and Critical History of America. 



1773] Working for the Colonies 199 

India Company, of the taxable tea had assumed 
formidable shape, and on a winter's evening toward 
the end of the same troubled year occurred that 
little *' tea-party " presided over by the historic 
Bostonians who, masquerading as Indians, threw 
into the waters of the harbour eighteen thousand 
pounds' worth of the fragrant commodity. 

By this time Franklin had entered upon one of 
the most picturesque episodes of his life; and in a 
few days he was to become the central figure of a 
little drama which might be taken as a prelude to 
the far greater drama of the Revolution. For such 
a scene we will appropriate a new chapter. 




CHAPTER VIII 



A MAN OF LETTERS 




1773-1774 

E now come to what may be styled the 
most sensational incident of Frank- 
lin's multi-coloured life — an incident 
wherein his wondrous calmness and 
self-possession (qualities all the more 
striking because invested in a man of positive char- 
acter and human personality) stand out in noble re- 
lief to the meanness and party passion that brought 
them into play. Many a victim so pursued by 
calumny might have succumbed to what was nothing 
more or less than a wave of political spite and little- 
ness; it remained for the hero of our biography to 
emerge triumphant and find, in the sober judgment 
of history, as well as in the verdict of his country- 
men, a vindication and reward. It is the affair of 
the Hutchinson letters and the Privy Council ordeal 
which we are now to briefly narrate. 

In the course of an animated conversation with a 
gentleman of character and distinction " ^ (a 

* So Franklin characterises the mysterious unknown in his Account 
of the Transactions Relating to Governor Hutchinson s Letters, 

300 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 201 

gentleman whose identity remains a mystery to the 
present day), Franklin had complained, not without 
a proper resentment, of the sending of British troops 
to Boston, and of the general treatment of the 
Americans by the home government. It was a 
proof, he said, that England no longer had a paren- 
tal regard for her children across the water. Where- 
upon the aforesaid " gentleman of character and 
distinction " assured the agent, much to the latter's 
surprise, that not only the measures he particularly 
censured so warmly, but all the other grievances 
complained of, took their rise, not from the govern- 
ment, but " were projected, proposed to administra- 
tion, solicited, and obtained by some of the most 
respectable among the Americans themselves, as 
necessary measures for the welfare of that country." 
This was news to Franklin, who naturally asked for 
proofs, if proofs there were, to substantiate so radi- 
cal an assertion. A few days later the " gentleman 
of character and distinction " called on his friend 
and produced a series of thirteen letters, six of which 
had been written by Thomas Hutchinson, when 
Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts (he was now 
Governor), and four by Andrew Oliver, now Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of that province. That their ad- 
dresses were destroyed made little or no matter, for 
although it was understood that they were originally 
directed to William Whately, a lately deceased 
member of Parliament and one-time secretary to 
George Grenville, the letters were of a public rather 
than a private nature, and had been destined, evi- 
dently, for extensive circulation in ministerial quar^ 



202 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

ters. To read them, therefore, was in nowise to 
infringe on the rights of bona fide personal corre- 
spondence, and so the American had no scruple in 
making himself master of their unusual contents. 

To say that he was amazed at what he found in 
them is to express the situation mildly. For the 
letters were fervid appeals to the English Govern- 
ment to inaugurate in Massachusetts just that policy 
of foolish oppression which had created such a sea 
of trouble, and which now threatened to separate 
forever the parent country and America. Those 
eyes of Franklin, usually so tranquil, must have 
glistened with indignation, as he read one epistle 
after another. " There must be an abridgement of 
what are called English liberties," is the way in 
which Hutchinson advises the ministry (under date 
of January 20, 1769) to repress the independent 
spirit of the Bostonians, and he adds, grimly: ** I 
doubt whether it is possible to project a system of 
government in which a colony three thousand miles 
distant from the parent state shall enjoy all the 
liberty of the parent state." All that he says, in- 
deed, indicates a desire to coerce Massachusetts into 
the position of a dependency, ruled by an iron hand 
stretching from across the Atlantic — a suggestion 
which unhappily fit in only too well with the ideas 
of George III. and his satellites in Parliament. 
Andrew Oliver goes, if anything, even further in 
illiberal sentiment, although he, like Hutchinson, is 
a native of the colony which learns to hate him. 
He harps on the " effectual support " which govern- 
ment needs in Boston ; speaks of the patriots as in- 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 203 

cendiaries (" If there will be no way to take off the 
original incendiaries, they will continue to instill 
their poison into the minds of the people, through 
the vehicle of the Boston Gazette''^-, suggests the 
formation of an Order of Patricians, and otherwise 
seems anxious to stamp out popular rule in the pro- 
vince, and to substitute therefor a half-military, half- 
aristocratic administration. Another contributor 
to the famous set of letters is Charles Paxton, Com- 
missioner of Customs at Boston, who writes in June, 
1768, under the influence of a great fright due to an 
outburst of popular indignation, ** Unless we have 
immediately two or three regiments, 't is the opinion 
of all the friends of Government that Boston will be 
in open rebellion." 

Franklin looked upon the writing of such letters 
as outrageous, yet he felt that if the Americans 
could be brought to believe that the repressive meas- 
ures taken in Boston were due rather to hints from 
that place than to English initiative, the animosity 
toward Britain might be lessened materially. 

" Though astonished," he relates, " I could not but confess myself 
convinced, and I was ready, as he [the before-mentioned 'gentleman 
of character and distinction '] desired, to convince my countrymen ; 
for I saw, I felt indeed by its effect upon myself, the tendency it 
must have towards a reconciliation, which for the common good I 
earnestly wished ; it appeared, moreover, my duty to give my con- 
stituents intelligence of such importance to their affairs ; but there 
was some difficulty, as this gentleman would not permit copies to be 
taken of the letters ; and, if that could have been done, the authen- 
ticity of those copies might have been doubted and disputed. My 
simple account of them, as papers I had seen, would have been still 
less certain ; I therefore wished to have the use of the originals for 
that purpose, which I at length obtained, on these express condi- 



204 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

tions : that they should not be printed ; that no copies should be 
taken of them ; that they should be shown only to a few of the lead- 
ing people of the government ; and that they should be carefully 
returned." 

The letters were quickly on their way to the Com- 
mittee of Correspondence of the Massachusetts 
Assembly. When they arri\^ed, and were handed 
about among the chosen few, the contempt already 
felt for Governor Hutchinson — a man, by the way, 
whose abilities were worthy of a more patriotic 
cause — increased a hundred-fold. As soon as the 
Assembly met, in the summer of 1773, the temper 
of the legislature was forcibly shown by the passing of 
a long series of resolutions aimed against the authors 
of the correspondence, and by the adoption of a peti- 
tion to the King asking for the removal from office 
of Hutchinson and his Lieutenant-Governor, the 
crawling Oliver.* In due time the petition reached 
Franklin, who sent it off post-haste to Lord Dart- 
mouth, with a brief diplomatic note of explanation, 
wherein he assured his lordship that there existed 
in Massachusetts a sincere disposition to be on good 
terms with England. The Assembly, he said, had 
declared their desire ** only to be put into the situ- 
ation they were in before the Stamp Act. TJiey 
aim at no novelties, ' ' There was significance in the 
sentence last quoted, and the agent did well to put 

* To the upholders of the English " prerogative" such action on 
the part of the Assembly must have seemed nothing short of sacri- 
lege. How the Tory bosom of burly Dr. Johnson must have filled 
with rage when he read of it ! — the same Johnson who once said of 
the Americans : " They are a race of convicts, and ought to be thank- 
ful for anything we allow them short of hanging." 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 205 

it in italics. He might be trusted for never missing 
a point, even if that point — to be paradoxical — was 
nothing more than an italic line. Several days later 
came a pretty reply from the noble Earl. He would 
place the petition before the King the next time he 
should be admitted to the royal presence, and he 
wrote, right genially : 

** I cannot help expressing to you the pleasure it gives me to hear, 
that a sincere disposition prevails in the people of that province 
[Massachusetts] to be on good terms with the mother country, and 
my earnest hope that the time is at no great distance when every 
ground of uneasiness will cease, and the most perfect tranquillity 
and happiness be restored to the breasts of that people." 

It was late in the summer of 1773 when this polite 
correspondence passed between Franklin and the 
Secretary of State for America, and one might have 
been warranted in supposing that something would 
be done to relieve the province of Massachusetts of 
its hated chief magistrate. A peaceful solution of 
all the difficulties might be read, presumably, in the 
political horoscope. In reality, however, the horo- 
scope had nothing so propitious to promise; neither 
the King nor the ministry as a whole had any de- 
sire to punish such staunch defenders of royal claims 
as Hutchinson and his coadjutor; it would not be 
long ere the atmosphere of the colonial office would 
become surcharged with all manner of dangerous 
currents. Franklin would find the court party cry- 
ing out against him as an incendiary, and he must 
write later that " the very action upon which I 
valued myself, as it appeared to me a means of 
lessening our differences, I was unlucky enough to 



2o6 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

find charged upon me, as a wicked attempt to increase 
them. ' ' WeU might he add, ' * Strange perversion ! ' ' 
The first muttering of the impending storm came 
in the shape of a duel. Thomas Whately, a banker, 
and the brother and executor of WiUiam Whately, 
the Englishman to whom the letters of Hutchinson 
et al vjQYQ ostensibly addressed, intimated that John 
Temple, a one-time colonial lieutenant-governor, 
had stolen the documents. Temple vigorously 
denied the accusation ; the scandal worked its way 
into the newspapers, and as the all-important letters 
had by this time mysteriously appeared in print on 
both sides of the water, the matter furnished food 
for gossip to many a staid old Londoner. The 
banker did not directly charge Temple with the 
theft, but his public statement was enough to make 
an innocent man burn with anger. Mr. Temple, he 
explained, had been allowed to go over the corre- 
spondence of the deceased Whately, for the purpose 
of taking certain letters to which he was legitimately 
entitled, and had thus enjoyed free access to the 
whole mass of writing which made up the literary 
remains, as it were, of the dead Grenvillian. 

"I made no scruple to lay before him, and occasionally during his 
visit to leave with him, several parcels of letters from my late broth- 
er's correspondents in America, in the exact state in which they had 
come into my possession ; some regularly sorted, and some promiscu- 
ously tied together ; and some of them were from Mr. Temple him- 
self and his brother, and from Governor Hutchinson, Mr, Oliver, and 
others ; and, during the intervals that I was in the room with Mr. 
Temple, we did together cast our eyes on one or two letters of Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson, and I believe one or two other correspondents of 
my late brother." 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 207 

To this impeachment, the more contemptible be- 
cause so indirect, and yet so calculated to prejudice 
the town. Temple replied by pointing out, very 
justly, that Thomas Whately had no knowledge 
that the compromising letters were in William 
Whately's possession at the time of the latter's 
death. No one could have read this verbal war 
with keener interest than did Franklin — he who knew 
who had procured the letters, and who guarded the 
secret so admirably that such it will, in all likeli- 
hood, ever remain. He kept silence, however, for, 
as he tells us, he thought the altercation would end, 
" as other newspaper controversies usually do, when 
the parties and the public should be tired of them." 
— " I had not the gift of prophecy ; I could not fore- 
see that the gentlemen would fight." 

But fight the two gentlemen did, very early on a 
cold December morning. Arthur Lee, who was 
then in England studying law, and holding the posi- 
tion of " substitute " for Franklin as agent for the 
Massachusetts Assembly, has left us a record of the 
encounter, in which he himself was interested. 

" Mr. Temple determined to send Mr. Whately a challenge. Mr. 
Izard * bore it, and offered to be his second. Mr. Whately accepted 
the meeting, but refused to have a second. Four o'clock, in the 
ring at Hyde Park, was the appointment. Mr. Izard and myself 
went to the park in his carriage to attend the issue. On our way to 
the ring our attention was drawn to another quarter, by the report of 
pistols. Thither we M'eiit and met Mr. Whately coming from the 
field of action, having received a slight wound in the breast and one 
on the shoulder a little behind ; both with a sword. He made no 
charge to us of unfair play on the part of his antagonist. Mr. Izard 

* Ralph Izard, of South Carolina. 



5o8 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

ofifered his carriage to carry him home, which he accepted, and Mr. 
Izard accompanied him. I went in quest of Mr. Temple, and we 
walked together to Mr. Izard's house. He informed me that some 
persons being at the ring Mr. Whately and he agreed to go to a differ- 
ent part. Mr, Whately had a sword but no pistols. He lent him one 
of his, they fired without effect, and then appealed to the sword ; at 
which he found his antagonist so little skilled that his life was at his 
mercy ; that he wounded him slightly in order to make him beg his 
pardon. A whisper, however, was soon circulated that Mr. Temple 
had attempted to stab his opponent when down. To corroborate 
which, a declaration from Mr. "Whately supported by the affidavits 
of an alehouse-keeper and some stable-boy were published, affirming 
that when Mr. Whately fell on his face the other stabbed him 
behind."* 

Thomas Whately was, in fact, a mean, despicable 

specimen of humanity, as we shall see anon in his 

treatment of Franklin. 

Lee continues: 

"As this business was in fact political and concerned America, I 
wrote a justification of Mr. Temple, in which I stated that Mr. 
Whately had accused him on mere suspicion ; that he refused to have 
seconds ; came without pistols ; made no charge against Mr. Temple 
when we met him, warm from the encounter, and most likely to 
have exclaimed against such treatment ; neither did those who had 
parted the combatants and were with him. say a word of it. That 
the slight wound on the shoulder, which gave countenance to this 
malignant charge, might well have happened from Mr. Temple 
being in the act of thrusting when his opponent fell, and by that 
means unintentionally touching him on the shoulder." 

It may be imagined that when affairs were left in 
this unsatisfactory shape, and a second duel was 
spoken of, Dr. Franklin should think it high time to 
pour oil upon the troubled waters. He held the 
key to the mystery of the letters, and though he 

* Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., by Richard Henry Lee. 



1774] '^ A Man of Letters " 209 

could not reveal the identity of the " gentleman of 
character and distinction," he must at least vindicate 
the ill-used Temple. Accordingly, on Christmas 
Day, an appropriate time for a kind action, he wrote 
to the Public Advertiser declaring that he alone was 
the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston 
the letters in question. 

" Mr. W.," he explained, " could not communicate them, because 
they were never in his possession ; and for the same reason they 
could never be taken from him by Mr. T. They were not of the 
nature of private letters between friends. They were written by 
public officers to persons in public stations, on public affairs, and in- 
tended to procure public measures ; they were therefore handed to 
other public persons, who might be influenced by them to produce 
these measures. Their tendency was to incense the mother-country 
against her colonies, and, by the steps recommended, to widen the 
breach ; which they effected. The chief caution expressed with re- 
gard to privacy was, to keep their contents from the colony agents, 
who, the writers apprehended, might return them, or copies of them, 
to America. The apprehension was, it seems, well founded ; for 
the first agent who laid his hands on them thought it his duty to 
transmit them to his constituents." 

To which communication the writer manfully signed 

himself, " B. Franklin, Agent for the House of 

Representatives of Massachusetts Bay." 

The agent had thus spoken for himself, as well as 

for Temple, but little good would the justification 

do him so far as those in power were concerned. 

The temper of the King and government was now 

for stern dealing with America ; there were to be no 

concessions, and no punishment of Hutchinson and 

Oliver; on the contrary, the provincials at large were 

to be regarded as a lot of traitors, with the pestifer- 
14 



2IO Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

ous Franklin (whose transmission to Boston of the 
Hutchinson letters was considered an unforgivable 
crime) as the chief conspirator. And as he was in 
London, an easy prey to official abuse and ill-usage, 
why not let him suffer {71 propria persona for the sins 
of his countrymen, as well as for those upon his own 
head ? We shall see how the cabal against him and 
his was prosecuted. 

On a Saturday in January, 1774, Franklin received 
word that the Privy Council would meet on the 
Tuesday following, to consider the petition of the 
Massachusetts Assembly in r^the removal of Hutch- 
inson and Oliver. It was a short notice, in all 
conscience, and the doctor at once bestirred himself. 
Should he employ other counsel than Mr. BoUan ? 
(agent for the Council of Massachusetts) was the 
question, and he proceeded to ask that gentleman. 
Mr. BoUan thought it not advisable to employ other 
counsel. *' He had sometimes done it in colony 
cases, and found lawyers of little service. Those 
who are eminent, and hope to rise in their profes- 
sion, are unwilling to offend the court ; and its dis- 
position on this occasion zvas zvcll known. " He would 
undertake to support the petition himself, in his 
capacity as agent for the Council. So far, so good. 
But late on Monday afternoon Franklin heard, to 
his great surprise, that Israel Mauduit, agent for the 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of Massachu- 
setts, had obtained leave to bring counsel to the 
Cockpit the next morning, to defend his clients be- 
fore their lordships. Of course it was too late, by 
this time, to do anything in the way of engaging 



1774] ''A Man of Letters " 211 

distinguished lawyers in behalf of the petition, and 
so Tuesday found Franklin on hand with no one but 
Bollan to assist him. 

The first thing the lords of the Privy Council did 
was to refuse recognition to Bollan, on the plea that 
as he did not represent the Assembly of Massachu- 
setts he had no right to speak upon a petition pre- 
sented from that body. It may have been good law 
to decide against him, but to raise the point was un- 
generous, and none the less so because it left Frank- 
lin to bear the full brunt of defending the appeal to 
the King. However, Bollan was duly extinguished, 
while the doctor manfully prepared for a battle 
which, as he must have suspected, w^ould prove a 
losing one for the colony — a battle wherein his 
chief antagonist was the unprincipled Wedderburn, 
Solicitor-General for the government, who was 
present to represent Mauduit, to discountenance the 
cause of the petitioners, and to espouse the treachery 
of Hutchinson and Oliver. It w^as only with diffi- 
culty, owing to the opposition of Wedderburn, that 
the Assembly's agent could induce the court to ac- 
cept as evidence authenticated copies of the famous 
letters, but, having at last accomplished this, he in- 
formed their lordships that he was surprised that 
counsel should have been employed against the 
petition ; that he apprehended this matter '' was 
rather a question of civil or political prudence, 
whether on the state of the fact that the governors 
had lost all trust and confidence with the people, 
and become universally obnoxious, it would be for 
the interest of his Majesty's service to continue 



212 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

them in those stations in that province "; that he 
conceived this ** to be a question of which their lord- 
ships were already perfect judges, and should receive 
no assistance in it from the arguments of counsel " ; 
but, that if counsel were to be heard on the other 
side, he must request leave to bring someone to 
represent the Assembly. 

Whereupon Mr. Mauduit was asked if he would 
waive the leave he had to appear by counsel, so that 
their lordships might proceed immediately to con- 
sider the petition. The fact was, that the Privy 
Council, having made up its mind beforehand, was 
probably anxious to go on with the sitting, and to 
make its report. But Mauduit was not to be 
shunted off in this wise. ** I know well Dr. Frank- 
lin's abilities," he shrewdly informed the court, 
" and wish to put the defence of my friends on a 
parity with the attack; he will not therefore wonder 
that I choose to appear before your lordships with 
the assistance of counsel." It was finally agreed, 
therefore, that the hearing should be adjourned until 
the 29th of January. The implacable Wedderburn, 
who saw in the case a glorious opportunity to bask 
in the sunshine of royal and governmental favour, 
announced that he would reserve to himself the 
right of asking at that time how the Assembly came 
into possession of the letters, through what hands 
and by what means they were procured. 

"Certainly," replied Lord Chief-Justice De Grey with austerity, 
" and to whom directed ; for the perfect understanding of the pas- 
sages may depend on that and other such circumstances. We can 
receive no charge against a man founded on letters directed to no- 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 213 

body, and perhaps received by nobody. The laws of this country 
have no such practice." 

Then, as he was quietly putting up his papers, 
Franklin was asked by the Lord President whether 
he intended to answer such questions. " In that, 
1 shall take counsel," was the prudent reply. ^ 

Franklin began at once to get ready for the strug- 
gle by asking the advice of the great Mr. Dunning, 
a barrister of remarkable abilities, but with a voice, 
presence, and delivery singularly unprepossessing. 
Must he answer the most important question threat- 
ened by Wedderburn — the question as to who 
originally put the Hutchinson letters into the hands 
of the agent ? No, said Dunning; the agent could 
not be forced so to do. The American breathed 
more easily. He did not expect to meet with any 
success in behalf of the petition, but no stone should 
be left unturned whereby he could place the cause 
of Massachusetts in the proper light, even if that 
light were not to penetrate the wilfully closed eyes 
of obsequious courtiers. Soon Arthur Lee came up 
from Bath to help his chief; Mr. Dunning and John 
Lee, another able lawyer, were engaged to appear 
before the Council; a line of policy was mapped out. 
The doctor also kept well informed as to the rumours 
that were floating about, and had many reasons to 
think that he was in the worst possible odour with 
the ministry and the friends of royalty. It was 
even hinted that there was a design to arrest him, 
to seize his papers, and to pack him off to Newgate, 

* See Franklin's letter to Thomas Gushing, of Boston, under date 
of February 15, 1774. 



2 14 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

there to meditate, no doubt, on his audacity and 
ingratitude. He was to be deprived of his post- 
master-generalship ; the petition was to be scornfully 
rejected ; the Assembly of Massachusetts would be 
censured, and the Governor would be picked out for 
well-deserved honours. Such were the reports. 

While Franklin was calmly listening to this omin- 
ous gossip, and making ready his brief, Thomas 
Whately suddenly clapped upon his back a disagree- 
able Chancery suit. The basis of action was ludi- 
crous enough, it being falsely contended that the 
doctor had caused the Hutchinson-Oliver corre- 
spondence to be printed ; that he had disposed of 
great numbers of the copies thereof; and that he 
should therefore be compelled to render an account 
for the profits of the aforesaid printing to the injured 
plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of the late 
William Whately. The suit was the result of politi- 
cal animus rather than of personal spite, but viewed 
in any light it bore ample testimony to the mean- 
ness of the living Whately, who was under deep ob- 
ligation to Franklin. The philosopher had helped 
him to reclaim some valuable lands in Pennsylvania, 
purchased years before by Whately's grandfather. 
Here was an exhibition of the grandson's gratitude. 
Franklin drew up the necessary defence to the suit 
(a suit which came to naught, it is pleasant to add), 
and he was soon able to trace the motive of this 
attack upon him to its proper source. For he 
writes : 

*' It was about this time become evident, that all thoughts of recon- 
ciliation with the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, by attention to 



1774] '' A Man of Letters " 215 

their petitions, and a redress of their grievances, was laid aside ; that 
severity was resolved ; and that the decrying and vilifying the people 
of that coimtry, and me their agent, among the rest, was quite a court 
measure. It was the fo/i with all the ministerial folks to abuse them 
and me, in every company and in every newspaper . . . but the 
attack from Mr. Whately was, I own, a surprise to me ; under the 
above-mentioned circumstances of obligation, and without the slightest 
provocation, I could not have imagined any man base enough to com- 
mence, 0/ his own motion, such a vexatious suit against me. But a 
little accidental information served to throw some light upon the busi- 
ness. An acquaintance* calling on me, after having been at the 
Treasury, showed me what he styled a pretty thing, for a friend of his ; 
it was an order for one hundred and fifty pounds, payable to Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, said to be one half of his yearly pension, and drawn 
by the secretary of the Treasury on this same Mr. Whately. I then 
considered him as a banker to the Treasury for the pension money, 
and thence as having an interested connexion with the administration, 
that might induce him to act by direction of others in harassing me 
with this suit ; which gave me if possible a still ?neaner opinion of 
him, than if he had done it of his own accord." 

As the time approached for the adjourned hearing 
before the Privy Council, it began to be pretty well 
understood that something highly entertaining, if 
not actually startling, was to take place. England 
was to have her innings against America, and it was 
playfully whispered among the inner governmental 
circles that the fiery Wedderburn had a pretty rod 
in pickle for that troublesome, rebellious Dr. Frank- 
lin. There were worthy gentlemen, therefore, who 
looked forward to the coming examination as they 
might have anticipated a comedy at Drury Lane ; 
all thought of statecraft or patriotism was sunk in 
the idea that the Lords of the Council were prepar- 
ing an amusing production of spectacular adjuncts, 

* William Strahan, M. P., the King's printer, 



2i6 Benjamin Franklin [^773- 

with the Solicitor-General as the leading actor — call 
him comedian, hero, heavy villain, or what not — in 
the curious performance. Nor is it strange, there- 
fore, that when the ardently expected morning 
arrived the Cockpit was crowded with a throng 
anxious to witness the real business of the day, 
which would be the impaling of Franklin rather than 
the respectful consideration of a respectful petition. 
That day proved one of the least creditable in the 
long history of a nation to which one is accustomed 
to look for great things, not for littleness. 

When the examination began the room presented 
a brilliant spectacle, with its array of handsomely 
dressed Privy Councillors, who were seated at a long 
table, and who had for a background all the tip- 
toeing spectators fortunate enough to penetrate the 
not over-large apartment. Dr. Franklin, the in- 
tended victim, stood near the fireplace, gazing 
stoically upon his enemies. He was clad in a full- 
dress suit of spotted Manchester velvet (that historic 
suit which he was to don again on a more propitious 
occasion), and his head was adorned by an old- 
fashioned, flowing wig. There he remained through- 
out the ordeal, " conspicuously erect," without 
betraying a telltale movement in any part of his 
body. " The muscles of his face had been pre- 
viously composed, so as to afford a placid, tranquil 
expression of countenance." The man was waiting 
to play his part — one of immobility and seeming 
indifference to the taunts of prejudice. 

After the preliminaries of the hearing had been dis- 
posed of (the petition being read, and the copies of 



1774] '^ A Man of Letters " 217 

the letters admitted as evidence), it was remarked 
that Wedderburn asked none of the threatened ques- 
tions. He was reserving his ammunition for more 
interesting game. In the meanwhile, the counsel 
for the Assembly, Messrs. Dunning and John Lee, 
spoke of the discontent of the Bostonians, " and ac- 
quitted themselves," as Franklin narrates, " very 
handsomely; only Mr. Dunning, having a disorder 
on his lungs that weakened his voice exceedingly, 
was not so perfectly heard as one could have 
wished." That defect, however, made no manner 
of difference ; their lordships had come to hear the 
Solicitor-General, not counsel for the " defence." 
And the Solicitor-General had primed himself to 
please their lordships. 

Wedderburn, upon rising to address them, 
launched into a glowing eulogy of Governor Hutch- 
inson, whom he painted in the colours of a suffer- 
ing hero, oppressed by turbulent, unfeeling men. 
But praise of Hutchinson was merely the prelude to 
his harangue ; he soon branched off into the most 
outrageous abuse of Franklin, " who stood there 
the butt of his invective ribaldry for near an hour, 
not a single lord adverting to the impropriety and 
indecency of treating a public messenger in so 
ignominious a manner." 

" How these letters came into the possession of anyone but the right 
owners," Wedderburn went on, " is a mystery for Dr. Franklin to 
explain. They who know the affectionate regard which the Whatelys 
had for each other, and the tender concern they felt for the honour of 
their brother's memory, as well as their own, can witness the distress 
which this occasioned. My lords, the late Mr. Whately was most 
scrupulously cautiovis about hjs letters. We Ijved for many years in 



2i8 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

the strictest intimacy [which may have been true, for Wedderburn 
loved to cultivate men in the confidence of ministry], and in all those 
years I never saw a single letter written to him. These letters, I be- 
lieve [he believed nothing of the sort], were in his custody at his 
death ; and I as firmly believe that without fraud they could not 
have been got out of the custody of the person whose hands they fell 
into. His brothers little wanted this additional aggravation to the 
loss of him. The letters, I say, could not have come to Dr. Frank- 
lin by fair means. The writers did not give them to him ; nor yet 
the deceased correspondent, who from our intimacy would otherwise 
have told me of it. Nothing, then, will acquit Dr. Franklin of the 
charge of obtaining them by fraudulent or corrupt means, for the 
most malignant purposes, unless he stole them from the person who 
stole them. This argument is irrefragable. I hope, my lords, you 
will mark and brand the man, for the honour of this country, of Eu- 
rope, and of mankind. Private correspondence has hitherto been 
held sacred in times of the greatest party rage, not only in politics 
but religion. He has forfeited all the respect of societies and of 
men. Into what companies will he hereafter go with an unembar- 
rassed face, or the honest intrepidity of virtue? Men will watch him 
with a jealous eye ; they will hide their papers from him, and lock 
up their escritoires. He will henceforth esteem it a libel to be 
called a man of letters ; Homo Trium literariim !" 

In classic Latin Wedderburn had stigmatised 
Franklin as a thief — Fur — " a man of three letters." 
Then he continued: 

"Your lordships know the train of mischiefs which followed. Wherein 
had my late worthy friend or his family offended Dr. Franklin, that 
he should first do so great an injury to the memory of the dead brother, 
by secreting and sending away his letters ; and then, conscious of what 
he had done, should keep himself concealed, till he had nearly, very 
nearly, occasioned the murder of the other. After the mischiefs of 
this concealment had been left for five months to have their full op- 
eration, at length comes out a letter, which it is impossible to read 
without horror {sic), expressive of the coolest and most deliberate 
malevolence, My lords, what poetic fiction only had penned for the 



1774] ' ' A Man of Letters ' ' 219 

breast of a cruel African, Dr. Franklin has realised and transcribed 
from his own. His, too, is the language of a Zanga : * 

*' ' Know then 't was I. 

/ forged the letter, — / disposed the picture, 
/hated, /despised, and /destroy.' " 

This was the language to which the venerable 
agent was obliged to listen in philosophical silence. 
Not a feature of his face moved ; not a muscle quiv- 
ered in angry response to the insults heaped upon 
him. As the speech grew more vindictive, the 
audience watched the American even more intently 
than before, but his countenance might have been 
of wood for all the feeling to be traced upon it. 
Never had he been so sublimely superior to the 
" slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." 

What made the ordeal the greater was that the 
Privy Councillors, the very Councillors who should 
have represented the dignity and the majesty of the 
crown, encouraged the taunts of Wedderburn by 
loud laughter and applause. Surely there was 
something " rotten in Denmark," or in English 
politics, when men of distinction could lend them- 
selves so openly to such an exhibition. At the 
sallies of Wedderburn's sarcastic wit, says Dr. 
Priestley, " all the members of the Council, the 
President himself (Lord Gower) not excepted, fre- 
quently laughed outright. No person belonging to 
the Council behaved with decent gravity except 
Lord North, who, coming late, took his stand be- 
hind the chair opposite to me. "f Doubtless the 

* Wedderburn was quoting from Dr. Young's Revenge. 

f " Not one of their lordships," Franklin writes to Thomas Cash- 



220 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

appreciation of flings like the following was particu- 
larly keen on the part of their lordships : 

" A foreign ambassador, when residing here, just before the break- 
ing out of a war, or upon particular occasions, may bribe a villain to 
steal or betray any state papers ; he is under the command of another 
state, and is not amenable to the laws of the country where he re- 
sides ; and the secure exemption from punishment may induce a laxer 
morality. But Dr. Franklin, whatever he may teach the people of 
Boston, while he is here^ at least, is a subject, and if a subject injure 
a subject, he is answerable to the law. And the Court of Chancery 
will not much attend to his new self-created importance. 

" The letters from Boston for two years past have intimated that 
Dr. Franklin was aiming at Mr. Hutchinson's government. It was 
not easy before this to give credit to such surmises. But nothing 
surely but a too eager attention to an ambition of this sort, could 
have betrayed a wise man into such conduct as we have now seen. 
"Whether these surmises are true or not, your lordships are much the 
best judges. If they should be true, I hope that Mr. Hutchinson 
will not meet with the less countenance from your lordships for his 
rival's being his accuser. Nor will your lordships, I trust, from 
what you have heard, advise the having Mr. Hutchinson displaced, in 
order to make room for Dr. Franklin as a successor. 

" On the part of Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, I am instructed 
to assure your lordships," Wedderburn hypocritically concluded, 
" that they feel no spark of resentment, even at the individuals who 
have done them this injustice. Their private letters breathe nothing 
but moderation. They are convinced that the people, though misled, 
are innocent. If the conduct of a few should provoke a just indig- 



ing, *' checked and recalled the orator to the business before them, 
but, on the contrary, a very few excepted, they seemed to enjoy 
highly the entertainment, and frequently burst out in loud applauses. 
This part of his speech was thought so good that they have since 
printed it, in order to defame me everywhere, and particularly to de- 
stroy my reputation on your side of the water ; but the grosser parts 
of the abuse are omitted, appearing, I suppose, in their own eyes, 
too foul to be seen on paper, so that the speech, compared to what 
it was, is now perfectly decent." 



1774] '' A Man of Lettei-s " 221 

nation, they would be the most forward, and, I trust, the most effi- 
cacious solicitors to avert its effects, and to excuse the men. They 
love the soil, the constitution, the people of New England ; they 
look with reverence to this country, and with affection to that. For 
the sake of the people they wish some faults corrected, anarchy abol- 
ished, and government re-established. But these salutary ends they 
wish to promote by the gentlest means, and the abridging of no 
liberties which a people can possibly use to its own advantage. A 
restraint from self-destruction is the only restraint they desire to be 
imposed upon New England." 

This is not all of the speech, but it is enough to 
indicate the nature of the attack. Delivered, as it 
was, with much rhetorical emphasis, and with an 
assumed air of indignant sincerity, it fell delightfully 
upon the jaded ears of the Privy Councillors, and 
made of the Solicitor-General a momentary hero. 
Not, of course, to all the listeners was he a hero, 
and his malevolent eloquence so fired the heart of 
Dr. Priestley with a virtuous contempt that the good 
gentleman refused to speak to Wedderburn at the 
close of the so-called examination. As for the 
formal action of the Privy Council, it was embodied 
in a cut-and-dried report advising his Majesty that 
the petition of the Massachusetts Assembly was 
founded upon resolutions " formed upon false and 
erroneous allegations," being " groundless, vexa- 
tious, and scandalous; and calculated only for the 
seditious purposes of keeping up a spirit of clamour 
and discontent in the said province." Franklin 
came in for the inevitable censure {Mr. Franklin 
the report styled him), and the King was finally told 
that nothing had been laid before the Councillors 
** which does or can, in their opinion, in any man- 



22 2 Benjamin Franklin [1773- 

ner, or in any degree, impeach the honour, integrity, 
or conduct of the said Governor or Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor; and their lordships are humbly of opinion, 
that the said petition ought to be dismissed." Ac- 
cordingly, and with great pleasure, George III. was 
pleased to take the advice of his faithful Council, 
and did so order that the said petition be dismissed 
as groundless, vexatious, scandalous, etc., etc. The 
Revolution was on the way. 

The day after the Privy Council farce. Dr. Priest- 
ley went to breakfast with Franklin, at the latter's 
lodgings in Craven Street. The philosopher was 
serene, as usual, and remarked, anent the outrage- 
ous tirade of Wedderburn : " I have never before 
been so sensible of the power of a good conscience ; 
for, if I had not considered the thing for which I 
have been so much insulted as one of the best ac- 
tions of my life, and what I should certainly do 
again in the same circumstances, I should not have 
supported it." Nor did the insult end with the 
entertainment of the Cockpit. Within twenty-four 
hours Franklin received formal notice that his 
Majesty's Postmaster-General " found it neces- 
sary " to dismiss him from his ofifice of Postmaster- 
General in North America. 

" The expression," as the deposed official wrote to Thomas Gushing, 
" was well chosen, for in truth they were under a necessity of doing 
it ; it was not their own inclination ; they had no fault to find with 
my conduct in the office ; they knew my merit in it, and that, if it 
was now an office of value, it had become such chiefly through my 
care and good management." 

The persecution of the great American had now 



1774] 



**A Man of Letters 



)) 



223 



been accomplished to the satisfaction of King 
George and his ministerial henchmen ; the stiff- 
necked provincials were rebuked in the person of 
their distinguished representative. But the gentle- 
men of government forgot that in loading Franklin 
with abuse they had increased a hundred-fold his in- 
fluence with his own countrymen. To make a man 
a martyr is to make him likewise a power. 





CHAPTER IX 

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 

1 774-1 776 

AD '* B. Franklin, agent," as he mod- 
estly described himself, packed up 
his trunks during the spring of 1774, 
and sailed away from the country 
whose public servants had used him 
so ill, he would have found himself, on reaching 
home, the most popular man in America. His 
treatment by Wedderburn, the hatred shown him 
by the court party, and the loss of his postmaster- 
generalship, served only to endear the philosopher 
to those who guarded so anxiously the threatened 
liberties of their native land. What more natural, 
therefore, than to return to his own shores, and 
there reap the reward of his Titanic, if unsuccessful 
labours, by playing the hero and enjoying the appro- 
bation and applause of the colonies ? The prospect 
would have held out temptations to a statesman of 
the selfish, vainglorious kind. But Franklin was 
cast in a different mould : although he had his share 
of vanity, as he was free to confess, egotism could 

224 



1776] Struggle for Independence 225 

not run away with his head or heart. His useful- 
ness as a colonial agent was gone completely, now 
that the Privy Council had insulted both him and 
those he represented ; yet for all that, he reasoned, 
he might aid America by staying in London and 
working indirectly rather than officially. Despite 
the clamours of government, to whom the question 
of provincial rights had become as the red rag to the 
proverbial bull, many Englishmen took a fair-minded 
view of the situation, and among them were certain 
members of Parliament with an influence and kindly 
disposition which seemed worth the cultivation. 
There, for instance, was that shining champion of 
America, Lord Chatham (the one-time Mr. Pitt), 
whose moral support might mean volumes, even 
though he happened to be in opposition to the min- 
istry. Thus it came to pass that Franklin, still 
hopeful as a schoolboy, determined to stick to his 
colours, and to try the effect of a little quiet diplo- 
macy. It was about this time that he devised the 
famous emblematic picture representing the future 
condition of Great Britain, should she persist in her 
oppression of the colonies. The design was repro- 
duced on copper-plate, struck off on cards, and 
printed, too, with an " explanation " and " moral " 
attached. 

"Great Britain," said the explanation, "is supposed to have been 
placed upon the globe ; but the colonies (that is, her limbs), being 
severed from her, she is seen lifting her eyes and mangled stumps to 
Heaven ; her shield, which she is unable to wield, lies useless by her 
side ; her lance has pierced New England ; the laurel branch has fal- 
len from the hand of Pennsylvania ; the English oak has lost its head, 
and stands a bare trunk, with a few withered branches ; briers and 
15 



226 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

thorns are on the ground beneath it ; the British ships have brooms 
at their topmastheads, denoting their being on sale ; and Britannia 
herself is seen sliding off the world (no longer able to hold its balance) 
her fragments overspread with the label, Date Obolum Belisario." 

On one thing, however, the agent was determined ; 
he would attend no more the levees of any of the 
ministers. Some proper show of resentment, both 
for personal and national reasons, was plainly neces- 
sary. ** I made no justification of myself from the 
charges brought against me," he afterward ex- 
plained to his son, in detailing this period of his 
public service; ** I made no return of the injury by 
abusing my adversaries; but held a cool, sullen 
silence, reserving myself to some future opportun- 
ity." And now and then he had the satisfaction of 
hearing that the " reasonable part of the administra- 
tion " were ashamed of the way in which they had 
treated him. Perhaps, too, the ** reasonable part 
of the administration " had enough common sense 
to view with alarm the spirit of revenge displayed 
toward the colonies by the " unreasonable part " of 
their official family. For we must not forget that in 
the spring of 1774 Lord North brought into Parlia- 
ment, and had passed, that vindictive bill closing 
the port of Boston until such time as ** order " was 
restored and indemnification made for the tea so 
merrily pitched into the water. Two other oppres- 
sive measures, more sweeping in scope and no less 
iniquitous, were likewise enacted ; furthermore. 
General Gage arrived in Boston to relieve the de- 
spised Hutchinson (who went to England to confer 
with the Government) ; and by midsummer vessels 



1776] Struggle for Independence 227 

loaded with British troops were sailing into the har- 
bour. The real contest was about to begin. Al- 
ready were preparations being made throughout the 
excited provinces for the Continental Congress to 
be held at Philadelphia in the coming September. 

Each idiotic act of the ministry only increased the 
desire of the discountenanced agent to do what he 
could, in the byways rather than in the highways of 
politics, to avert the gathering storm. A coalition 
ministry, more favourably disposed toward the 
colonies, was now the hope of the Parliamentary 
minority, and to assist, however indirectly, in the 
formation of such a cabinet became his dearest wish. 
Numerous were the interviews he had with the 
" reasonable " members of both Houses, whom he 
besought and conjured " not to suffer, by their 
little misunderstandings, so glorious a fabric as the 
present British empire to be demolished by these 
blunderers " — for, in spite of all that had gone be- 
fore, Franklin still desired an honourable union 
between the mother country and her far-away plant- 
ations.* It was in the heat of all this eloquent 
appeal to the English conscience that Lord Chat- 
ham, from whom, once upon a time, he could not 
get an audience, asked to see the distinguished 
American and was pleased to treat him with an 
" abundance of civility. " The reader with an im- 
agination cannot but envy the witnesses of a meeting 
in which the great English statesman expressed a 



* The reader is referred to An Account of Negotiations in London 
for Effecting a Reconciliation between Great Britain and the Anteri^ 
can Colonies^ written by Franklin for his son. 



228 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

love for his brethren across the Atlantic, and the 
hope that they would " continue firm and united in 
defending by all peaceable and legal means their 
constitutional rights." 

If Franklin, on his part, did not contrast the past 
inaccessibility of the noble Earl with the new con- 
ditions, he must have been less human than bio- 
graphers fondly suppose. Perhaps the doctor 
deferred any such triumphant comparison until 
later. Be that as it may, he assured Lord Chatham 
that he lamented the impending ruin of a magnifi- 
cent empire, and " hoped that if his lordship, with 
the other great and wise men of the British nation, 
would unite and exert themselves, it might yet be 
rescued out of the mangling hands of the present 
set of blundering ministers." His lordship was 
pleased with this exposition of the case — that the 
ministers were blunderers who should know better 
than the resourceful, far-seeing Pitt ? — but he spoke 
of the proposed coalition cabinet as something 
rather to be desired than expected. Then there 
was the opinion prevailing in England that America 
aimed at complete independence — '* what of that ? " 
he asked. The ready Franklin was quick with a com- 
forting answer. He had more than once travelled 
almost from one end of the American continent to 
the other, and *' kept a great variety of company, 
eating, drinking, and conversing with them freely," 
but never had he heard " in any conversation, from 
any person, drunk or sober, the least expression of 
a wish for a separation, or hint that such a thing 
would be advantageous to America." Lord Chat- 



1776] Struggle for Independence 229 

ham felt reassured, and did not fail to say how glad 
he was to learn from the good doctor's lips that 
" independence " was not an issue, and he conde- 
scendingly intimated a desire to see his new friend 
** as often as might be." The visitor, who was 
charmed with the politeness and liberal sentiments 
of the great Englishman, murmured how sensible 
he was of such an honour, and of the advantages he 
should reap from his lordship's instructive conversa- 
tion, and so bowed himself out. Before another 
year had ended the first blood of the Revolution 
flowed at Lexington and Concord ; in less than two 
years from the date of the Chatham-Franklin inter- 
view American independence had become a fact, 
with the philosopher as one of its most devoted sup- 
porters. Teinpora miitantiir ! 

But who so bold as to foretell, on that August 
day of 1774, when these two patriots met for the 
first time, that America would ere long become a 
sovereign nation and a power unto herself ? The 
situation then seemed as inscrutable as a compli- 
cated game of chess — a game, in this instance, whose 
happy solution was materially prevented by the 
presence on the board of a troublesome King. And 
it was through chess-playing, curiously enough, that 
a few Englishmen sought to engage Franklin in a 
scheme to effect the reconciliation between the two 
countries, and to use him as a well-rewarded negoti- 
ator who should bring every influence to bear in 
putting his fellow-Americans in a more amiable 
frame of mind. It was a colossal scheme, which 
had for its beginning an invitation to take part in a 



230 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

friendly little game with the Honourable Mistress 
Howe, a sister of the Admiral Lord Howe, who was 
later to figure in the Revolutionary struggle. Mis- 
tress Howe, Franklin was told, desired to meet him, 
for she fancied she could beat him at his once 
favourite chess. Although the doctor was out of 
practice, he gallantly sent word that he would wait 
upon the lady when she should think fit. He was 
a democrat and, v/hen he so willed, a terrible stoic, 
but to resist the attention of an attractive member 
of the aristocracy was not in his nature. Amid all 
his troubles he could never despise the eclat of a 
London drawing-room, nor forget that the more he 
went out among ** people of quality " the more did 
he increase his own influence and power to benefit 
the country of his birth. 

So to the house of the Honourable Mistress Howe 
he repaired one day, accompanied by a member of 
the Royal Society, and played a few games with the 
fair hostess, whom he found of such " sensible con- 
versation and pleasing behaviour " that he was easily 
induced to arrange for another trial of skill. He 
was a susceptible old gentleman was our hero. 
Thus far, so he says, he had no suspicion that the 
kings and knights and pawns were but a pretext. 
Nor did he see any connection between chess and 
politics when David Barclay, M.P., hinted to him, 
just at this time, at the ** great merit that person 
would have who could contrive some means of pre- 
venting so terrible a calamity " as civil war between 
England and America. No one might effect more 
in that direction than Franklin himself, said Mr. 







-5^. 




CARPENTERS' HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 

WHEREIN MET THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774. 



1776] Struggle for Independence 231 

Barclay, particularly as it was understood that the 
ministry would be very glad to emerge from their 
embarrassments on any terms, " only saving the 
honour and dignity of government." The doctor 
was dubious, but promised to consider the matter; 
he ended by being drawn into a conference with Dr. 
Fothergill, at whose request he wrote out a plan by 
which, he thought, a reconciliation might possibly 
be brought about. This plan suggested as a con- 
cession to Great Britain that the tea thrown into 
Boston harbour should be paid for by Massachusetts 
(a proposition which caused Samuel Adams to cry 
out: ** Franklin may be a good philosopher, but he 
is a bungling politician "), but it exacted from the 
mother country the repeal of the tea-duty and of all 
acts restraining manufactures in the colonies, and 
provided, in a general way, for the granting of a 
liberal but judicious autonomy to the people of 
America. 

It was in the afternoon preceding the evening on 
which Franklin had his interview with Dr. Fother- 
gill and David Barclay that he enjoyed — remarkable 
coincidence — his second chess party with the Hon- 
ourable and highly entertaining Mistress Howe. 
After a pleasant experience with the chessmen, the 
two players drifted into a little chat, first on a 
mathematical problem, and then on the disposition 
of the new Parliament. Here we begin to see the 
fine diplomatic hand of the woman. " And what 
is to be done with this dispute between Great Britain 
and the colonies ? " she asked, doubtless with all the 
innocence appertaining to femininity; " I hope we 



232 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

are not to have a civil war ? " " Why, they should 
kiss and be friends," responded the philosopher; 
'* what can they do better ? Quarrelling can be of 
service to neither, but is ruin to both." Then Mis- 
tress Howe grew more intimate. " I have often 
said," she sighed, '* that I wished government would 
employ you to settle the dispute for them ; I am 
sure nobody could do it so well. Do not you think 
that the thing is practicable ?" *' Undoubtedly, 
madame," answered Franklin, " if the parties are 
disposed to reconciliation ; for the two countries 
have really no clashing interests to differ about. It 
is rather a matter of punctilio, which two or three 
reasonable people might settle in half an hour. I 
thank you for the good opinion you are pleased to 
express of me; but the ministers will never think of 
employing me in that good work ; they choose rather 
to abuse me." " Aye," said Mistress Howe, with 
a pretty indignation, let us suppose, in her sympa- 
thetic voice, " they have behaved shamefully to 
you. And indeeed some of them are now ashamed 
of it themselves." So the talk ended. " I looked 
upon this as accidental conversation ; thought no 
more of it," relates Franklin. We must take his 
word for this statement of his unusual want of per- 
ception, yet are we to be blamed if, deep down in 
our consciousness, there lurks the thought that the 
doctor was not qiiite so ingenuous as he would lead 
us to believe ? His was a difficult path to tread ; any 
attempt that he could make to bring on a reconcil- 
iation must be done in an unofficial way, without 
authority of the Continental Congress now as- 



1776] Struggle for Independence 233 

sembled in Philadelphia. What more natural, 
therefore, than that he should proceed with caution, 
and simulate the virtue of childish innocence, 
though he had it not ? 

No sooner had Franklin's plan of accommodation 
(which he called " Hints for Conversation upon the 
Subject of Terms that might probably produce a 
Durable Union between Britain and the Colonies ") 
been properly formulated than it mysteriously 
reached members of the ministry. Then arrived 
the petition addressed to his Majesty by the Conti- 
nental Congress — a waste of good brains and paper, 
as it proved — and finally, on the evening of Christ- 
mas Day (1774), there was another little game with 
the obliging Mistress Howe. The moment that he 
entered her house the lady informed Franklin that 
her brother, Lord Howe, wished to meet him. The 
doctor said he would be glad to have that honour. 
As his lordship was near by, the sister soon had the 
pleasure of introducing to each other the two men 
whose last meeting in this world would be of a rather 
different nature from their first one. After the pass- 
ing of the inevitable compliments, made obligatory 
by an ornate eighteenth-century etiquette. Lord 
Howe showed his hand by offering, practically, to 
serve as an intermediary between a stiff-necked minis- 
try and him whose pardon that ministry had not the 
manliness to ask. He set forth his regard for Amer- 
ica, and, to quote Franklin, " hoped his zeal for the 
public welfare would, with me, excuse the imperti- 
nence of a mere stranger, w^ho could have otherwise 
no reason to expect, or right to request, me to open 



234 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

my mind to him on these topics ; but he did conceive 
that, if I would indulge him with my ideas of the 
means proper to bring about a reconciliation, it 
might be of some use ; that perhaps I might not be 
willing myself to have any direct communication 
with this ministry on this occasion ; that I might 
likewise not care to have it known that I had any 
indirect communication with them, till I could be 
well assured of their good dispositions; that, being 
himself upon no ill terms with them, he thought it 
not impossible that he might by conveying my senti- 
ments to them, and theirs to me, be a means of 
bringing on a good understanding, without commit- 
ting either them, or me, if his negotiation should not 
succeed; and that I might rely on his keeping per- 
fectly secret everything I should wish to remain so. " 
Here was a glowing temptation. The fact that 
Franklin yielded to it only throws his patriotism 
into the stronger light. He had no authority to 
negotiate any treaty of compromise, and as med- 
dling might bring censure it would be easier to leave 
Congress to deal with the vexed problem. But the 
doctor kept to himself his fears of criticism, if he 
had any; he promised Lord Howe to draw up some 
more proposals for a reconciliation, and entered, 
with all the alacrity of a conspirator in grand opera, 
into a little ruse whereby he was to continue his 
chess-playing with Mistress Howe, and thus have 
opportunity to meet her brother without attracting 
attention. Thereby the well-intended little plot de- 
veloped. The agent sketched out a second plan, 
which Mistress Howe copied and privately sent to 



1*776] Struggle for Independence 235 

his lordship ; this new paper and the " Hints " were 
handed about in ministerial circles, and enough 
mystery was made of the whole business to suggest 
that a treasonable, rather than a highly creditable, 
correspondence was in progress. There is some- 
thing so refreshing about a secret. 

Nor was the cultivation of Lord Chatham forgot- 
ten by the American diplomat, who called on that 
nobleman after the petition from Congress had 
arrived, and was delighted to hear him describe the 
gathering in Philadelphia as " the most honourable 
assembly of statesmen since those of the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, in the most virtuous times." 
A little later, on the 19th of January, Lord Chat- 
ham sent word to Franklin, by Lord Stanhope, that 
on the following day he was to make a motion, in 
the House of Lords, concerning America, and that 
he greatly desired his friend should hear it. 

" The next morning," says Franklin, " his lordship (Stanhope) let 
me know by another card, that, if I attended at two o'clock in the 
lobby, Lord Chatham would be there about that time, and would 
himself introduce me. I attended, and met him there accordingly. 
Oi\ my mentioning to him what Lord Stanhope had written to me, 
he said : ' Certainly, and I shall do it with the more pleasure, as I 
am sure your being present at this day's debate will be of more serv- 
ice to America than mine ' ; and so taking me by the arm was lead- 
ing me along the passage to the door that enters near the throne, 
when one of the door-keepers followed, and acquainted him that, by 
the order, none were to be carried in at that door but the eldest sons 
or brothers of peers ; on which he limped back with me to the door 
near the bar, where were standing a number of gentlemen, waiting 
for the peers who were to introduce them, and some peers waiting 
for friends they expected to introduce ; among whom he delivered me 
to the door-keepers, saying aloud, ' This is Dr. Franklin, whom I 



236 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

would have admitted into the House,' when they readily opened the 
door for me accordingly." 

The honour of Lord Chatham's intimacy pleased 
Frankhn not a Httle, and when the peer called upon 
him in Craven Street, on a certain Sunday, and left 
his carriage standing at the door so long that the 
people coming from church grew curious, the agent 
was elated. As he confesses: ** Such a visit from 
so great a man, and so important a business, flat- 
tered not a little my vanity; and the honour of it 
gave me the more pleasure, as it happened on the 
very day twelve months that the ministry had taken 
so much pains to disgrace me before the Privy 
Council." In fact, his lordship had a little plan of 
his own for the happy settlement of the American 
situation, and he came to show it to the would-be 
peace-maker. When, in the course of a few days, 
Chatham presented the paper to Parliament, Frank- 
lin was on hand to hear the debate in the Upper 
House. Here he had the honour of an insult from 
my Lord Sandwich, who arose and moved that the 
plan be rejected ** with the contempt it deserved." 
He could never believe, the speaker protested, that 
it was the work of a British peer, and, turning 
toward the agent, he said, " he fancied he had in 
his eye the person who drew it up, one of the bitter- 
est and most mischievous enemies this country has 
ever known." Immediately many of the lords 
looked toward the seemingly unconscious enemy, 
who kept his features immovable. The insult was 
compensated for by the compliment which it drew 
from Lord Chatham, who rebuked the tirade of 




THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 

rrtOM AN OIL PAINTIN3 IN THE POSSESSION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



1776] Struggle for Independence 237 

Lord Sandwich, and declared that the gentleman so 
injuriously alluded to was one whom " all Europe 
held in high estimation for his knowledge and wis- 
dom," — one who was an honour " not to the Eng- 
lish nation alone, but to human nature." Again 
the philosopher remained impassive, although he 
kept up a fierce thinking, and wondered how it was 
that these hereditary legislators dared to claim sov- 
ereignty over three millions of sensible Americans, 

since they appeared to have scarce discretion 
enough to govern a herd of swine." " Hereditary 
legislators!" he said to himself, contemptuously. 

There would be more propriety, because less haz- 
ard of mischief, in having (as in some university of 
Germany) hereditary professors of mathematics!" 
The one-time loyalty of the sage was fast turning 
into something not so reverent. 

How the several " plans " to ward off the Revo- 
lution failed, how the feelings of ministry settled 
down into a sort of blind rage against the colonies, 
and how Franklin grew so angry as almost to lose 
control of that well-ordered temper of his, are mat- 
ters of history. The chess-playing ceased after a 
while, pleasant as it had proved, although before 
the agreeable games came to an end Lord Howe 
had asked whether, in case he were sent to America 
as a commissioner for settling the differences, the 
doctor would go with him. He accompanied the 
request with the promise of a substantial bribe. 

That the ministry may have an opportunity of 
showing their good disposition towards yourself, 
will you give me leave, Mr, Franklin, to procure for 



238 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

you previously some mark of it ; suppose the pay- 
ment here of the arrears of your salary, as agent for 
New England, which I understand they have stopped 
for some time past ? " The scheme was simple 
enough ; the well-known business frugality of the 
agent was to be tempted ; for a few hundred pounds 
he was to sell himself to the purposes of the English 
Government, and to plead with his fellow-Americans, 
at so much per head, to take whatever terms might 
be offered. 

' My lord," replied Franklin, " I shall deem it a great honour to 
be in any shape joined with your lordship in so good a work ; but, if 
you hope service from any influence I may be supposed to have, 
drop all thoughts of procuring me any previous favours from minis- 
ters ; my accepting them would destroy the very influence you pro- 
pose to make use of : they would be considered as so many bribes to 
betray the interest of my country ; but only let me see the propositions, 
and, if I approve of them, I shall not hesitate a moment, but will hold 
myself ready to accompany your lordship at an hour's warning." 

This project fell to the ground, like all the rest, 
and Franklin prepared to return to Philadelphia. It 
would be a sad home-coming, for he had lately re- 
ceived news that his " dear child," the worthy 
Deborah Franklin, was no more. The wife who 
had watched so faithfully the unfolding and the de- 
velopment of his public life, and who had guarded 
so zealously his personal interests, from the time 
that she helped to tend the little store on Market 
Street, had left him before the climax to his own 
work had been reached."^ It was a hard blow for an 



* Mrs. Franklin died of paralysis on the 19th of December, 1774. 
" Her death," wrote Governor Franklin to his father, " was no more 



1776] Struggle for Independence 239 

old man to bear, but he had the spirit of a Socrates. 
He never forgot, through all the trying time prior 
to his sailing from England, to keep before him the 
needs of the colonies. Even the danger of a public 
insult, like the one offered by Lord Sandwich, could 
not frighten him away from Parliament. Once, 
when he attended a session of the House of Lords, 
and heard his countrymen abused as the lowest of 
mankind, he returned in a heated mood to his lodg- 
ings, and drew up a memorial for presentation to 
Lord Dartmouth. It was a rather fiery exposition 
of the wrongs of Massachusetts: fortunate it proved 
that he listened to some sage advice, and never sent 
the paper to the Secretary. Had he done so, he 
might have been promptly arrested. 

When the exile reached Philadelphia, early in 
May, he was welcomed not only by his daughter 
Sarah (now Mrs. Bache) and her family, but by all 
Philadelphia as well. There were hundreds of fer- 
vent greetings, while the most distinguished mark 
of honour and esteem was shown in the action of 
the Pennsylvania Assembly, which proceeded, upon 
the day after Franklin's return, to elect him a dele- 
gate to the Second Continental Congress. There 
was work to be done ; the actions of Lexington and 
Concord and the tyranny of General Gage had 



than might be reasonably expected after the paralytic stroke she 
received some time ago, which greatly affected her memory and un- 
derstanding. She told me when I took leave of her on my removal 
to Amboy, that she never expected to see you unless you returned 
this winter, for that she was sure she should not live till next sum- 
mer. 



240 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

changed the spirit of the scene ; the spectre of war 
stalked grimly through the land. The country was 
rising to defend its liberties, perhaps its very exist- 
ence ; it wanted but several days to the assembling 
of the colonial representatives who were to direct 
the national resistance and elect George Washing- 
ton commander-in-chief of the army. Franklin had 
scarcely a minute to recuperate from the tiresome 
voyage; once more he put on the armour of energy, 
and no one in all excited Philadelphia was more 
ready to assist than he, despite the fact that he was 
nearly seventy years old. Perhaps it would be 
more appropriate to say that he was nearly seventy 
years young. 

'* His mind never grew old ; and his body, at this time, was not 
perceptibly impaired. Writers of the period describe him as having 
grown portly, and he himself frequently alludes, in jocular exaggera- 
tion, to his great bulk. He had now discarded the cumbersome wig 
of his early portraits, and wore his own hair, thin and gray, without 
powder or pigtail. His head being remarkably large and massive, 
the increased size of his body was thought to have given proportion as 
well as dignity to his frame. His face was ruddy, and indicated vig- 
orous health. His countenance expressed serenity, firmness, benevo- 
lence ; and easily assumed a certain look of comic shrewdness, as if 
waiting to see whether his companions had ' taken' a joke."* 

It was as a hard, effective worker and counsellor, 
rather than as an orator or a man of showy brilliancy, 
that Franklin now shone forth in the important pro- 
ceedings of Congress. 

"My time was never more fully employed," he writes to the good 
Dr. Priestley. " In the morning, at six, I am at the Committee of 
Safety, appointed by the Assembly to put the province in a state of 



* Parton's Life and Times of Beniamin Franklin. 



1776] Struggle for Independence 241 

defence ; which committee holds till near nine, when I am at the 
Congress, and that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both these 
bodies proceed with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings are 
well attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain, that men can be 
as diligent with us from zeal for the public good, as with you for 
thousands per annum. Such is the difference between uncorrupted 
new states and corrupted old ones." 

It was only two days before the date of this letter 
that he had written those famous lines to his friend 
William Strahan : 

You are a member of Parliament, and one of 
that majority which has doomed my country to de- 
struction. You have begun to burn our towns, and 
murder our people. Look upon your hands, they 
are stained with the blood of your relations ! You 
and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, 
and I am yours." 

Meanwhile Franklin was doing something more 
than indulging in outbursts of patriotism. He 
served on a number of important committees, occa- 
sionally relieving the tedium of their meetings by an 
apt witticism which tickled the members' sense of 
humour, and in addition to all his other burdens he 
had thrust upon him, not unwillingly, perhaps, the 
new office of Postmaster-General under direction of 
Congress. Matters of finance, war, the mails, In- 
dian negotiations, statesmanship, et ccetera — there 
was no subject on which he could not give much 
needed counsel. He even found time to outline a 
plan for the permanent union of all the British 
colonies, among which he actually included Ireland, 
maybe as a theatrical, if useless, bit of defiance to 
his Majesty of England. Then, after the adjourn- 



242 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

ment of Congress, the doctor paid a visit to his son, 
Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, whose own son, 
William Temple Franklin, had been with the philo- 
sopher in London. It would come to pass that as 
the weeks went on a complete estrangement was to 
take place between Dr. Franklin and the Governor, 
who would go over heart and soul to the cause of 
the British, and that William Temple Franklin would 
remain with his grandfather rather than with his Tory- 
parent. For it was not long ere the Governor, in 
his enthusiasm for the royal interests, got himself 
into bad odour with the patriots, and finally into 
prison.* 

With the re-assembling of Congress in September 
came more work for Franklin. So little did his 
friends scruple to pack duties upon his brave old 
shoulders, that the members of the Pennsylvania 
Assembly elected him to a seat among them, and 
the Continental delegates chose him as one of a 
committee of three to discuss with General Wash- 
ington, at Cambridge, as to the best means of sup- 

* There was so much of the talented and agreeable in Governor 
Franklin's nature that one must regret that he did not join the ranks 
of the patriots, wherein he might have served the country well, made 
his own name something to be pleasantly remembered, and have 
saved his father many a regretful thought. But William Franklin 
was a greater Tory than the average Englishman — more loyal than 
the King — and as a result of his pernicious activity in behalf of the 
royalists he had to spend many weary months in a Connecticut jail. 
"The people of the Jerseys," says a contemporary notice, "on 
account of his abilities, connections, principles, and address, viewed 
him as a mischievous and dangerous enemy in that province, and 
consequently thought it expedient to remove him, under a strong 
guard, to Connecticut." 



1776] Struggle for Independence 243 

porting and regulating the American army. Not 
heeding the inconveniences of the journey to Massa- 
chusetts, the stout-hearted citizen set out manfully 
with his two colleagues on the committee, Benjamin 
Harrison and Thomas Lynch, after having written 
the day before to Dr. Priestley that America was 
as determined and unanimous as ever. 

*' Britain, at the expense of three millions, has killed one hundred 
and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is twenty thousand pounds a 
head ; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of 
which she lost again by our taking post on Ploughed Hill. During 
the same time sixty thousand children have been bom in America," 
from which it was easy to calculate, added the writer, " the time 
and expense necessary to kill us all, and conquer our whole terri- 
tory." 

No sooner had they arrived at Cambridge than the 
three delegates entered with Washington into the 
business of formulating plans for the maintenance 
of the army, the raising of new regiments, and the 
revising of the articles of war. We are warranted 
in supposing that Franklin had many a talk with 
the commander-in-chief about the interesting days 
when the two of them, neither so famous or so full 
of responsibility as at present, used to meet in the 
camp of poor, half-forgotten Braddock. Times had 
changed since then ; France was no longer the com- 
mon enemy ; the redcoats were become the targets 
for American bullets. 

When Franklin got back to Philadelphia he may 
have deluded himself with the idea that he was to 
engage in no more cross-country expeditions. False 
hope ! When April of the memorable ' jG had come, 



244 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

and the spirit for independence was setting in 
throughout the distraught colonies — when the Eng- 
lish Government was treating her American children 
more and more as rebels, fit only for ignominious 
subjection — the philosopher was on the waters of 
the fair Hudson, treading the deck of a sloop des- 
tined for Albany. He went with Samuel Chase 
and Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, to aid, if possible, 
in forming a union between the colonies and Canada, 
and to hold a conference, at Montreal, with the then 
heroic Benedict Arnold. In company of these three 
commissioners appointed by Congress was Father 
John Carroll, afterward Archbishop of Baltimore, 
who was expected to influence the Roman Catholic 
clergymen of the North in the ifiterests of the 
American cause. The boat sailed up the river, not 
without a storm to diversify the trip ; at Albany the 
commissioners left their perilous craft, and thence 
came jolting rides over country roads, and uncom- 
fortable experiences with bateaux, oxen, and ca- 
leches, until tired out and shaken up, the party 
reached Montreal. 

Here General Arnold paid his distinguished visi- 
tors every attention, but the information he gave 
them as to the disposition of Canada toward the 
Continental cause must have filled them with disgust. 
American financial credit, American arms, and, in 
short, all things American, so far as the term applied 
to the colonies southward, were at a humiliating 
discount among the Canadians. 

" Not the most trifling service can be procured," as the commis- 
sioners straightway wrote to Congress, " without an assurance of in- 



1776] Struggle for Independence 245 

stant pay in silver or gold. The express we sent from St. Johns, to 
inform the General of our arrival there, and to request carriages for 
La Prairie, was stopped at the ferry, till a friend passing changed a 
dollar bill for him, into silver ; and we are obliged to that friend for 
his engagement to pay the calashes, or they would not have come 
for us." 

Congress was looked upon in the North as an irre- 
sponsible, insolvent, rebellious body, and the posi- 
tion of the commissioners proved irksome in the 
extreme, pestered as they were " with demands, 
great and small, that they could not answer," in a 
place where their enemies predominated, where the 
garrison was weak, and where the approach of a 
British force would have turned the negative hostil- 
ity into one of a positive sort. When news came of 
the arrival, at Quebec, of a British fleet laden with 
troops, and of its defeat of the poor little American 
army, the commissioners wisely gave up the fight. 
Canada was lost. Franklin promptly set out on his 
homeward journey, taking with him Father Carroll, 
an undaunted hopefulness for the colonies, and some 
symptoms of the gout. He must have taken back, 
likewise, a grimly humourous view of Canadian 
prudence and ignorance, and, indeed, he was heard 
to say that if another mission to the North were to 
be undertaken it should consist of schoolmasters. 

Franklin arrived home in time to assist in the irre- *^ 
sistible movement for throwing off all allegiance to 
the British crown: he had the privilege of affixing 
his signature to the imperishable Declaration of In- 
dependence which transformed a series of vassal 
colonies into an embryonic nation. It was a privilege 
which promised as much of danger as of honour. 



246 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

for should British arms finally triumph over Ameri- 
can resistance, each signer of the parchment had 
before him the prospect of a gallows and a halter 
furnished through the generosity of his Most 
Gracious and Obstinate Majesty, George III., De- 
fender of the Faith, Defender of British Prejudice, 
and Defender, likewise, of Obsolete Prerogative. 
But the die was cast, and no one realised^ more the 
necessity for the great step, or placed his name more 
cheerfully on what might come to be a roll of treason, 
or a death-warrant, than did Benjamin Franklin. 
More than that, he was one of the committee of five, 
with Thomas Jefferson at its head, which Congress 
appointed to draft the Declaration. He had nothing 
to do with the shaping of the document, beyond 
making a few verbal suggestions. Jefferson wrote 
the draft of the Declaration ; he then submitted it 
in turn to Franklin and John Adams, and finally to 
the whole committee. 

From the committee the paper was sent to Con- 
gress, where it ran the gauntlet of a pretty free 
criticism before its slight amendment and final adop- 
tion. While listening to the debate, and writhing 
under the fire of questions and remarks to which the 
Declaration gave rise, Jefferson was partly consoled 
for his ordeal by a bit of humour from the lips of 
Franklin, next to whom he sat. 

" I have made it a rule," whispered the philosopher to the Virgin- 
ian, " whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draftsman of 
papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an 
incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman 
printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed hatter, having served 



1776] Struggle for Independence 247 

out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern 
was to have a handsome sign-board with a proper inscription. He 
composed it in these words : "John Thofnpson, Hatter, makes and 
sells Hats for ready Money, with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he 
thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The 
first he showed it to thought the word hatter tautologous, because 
followed by the words fuakes hats, which showed he was a hatter. It 
was struck out. The next observed that the word makes might as 
well be omitted, because his customers would not care who made the 
hats ; if good and to their mind they would buy, by whomsoever 
made. He struck it out. A third said he thought the words for 
ready money were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell 
on credit. Everyone who purchased expected to pay. They were 
parted with, and the inscription now stood, John Thompsony sells 
hats. ' Sells hats,' says his next friend; 'why nobody will expect 
you to give them away. What, then, is the use of that word?' It 
was stricken out, and hats followed, the rather as there was one 
painted on the board. So his inscription was ultimately reduced to 
John Thompson, with the figure of a hat subjoined." 

Fortunately for the nation, and for the temper of 
Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration was treated with 
more respect than John Thompson's dwindling sign. 

Throughout all the trials of this critical period of 
American history, so fraught with uncertainty and 
even gloom, the venerable doctor preserved his 
sense of fun. It came out now and then as refresh- 
ing as a glimpse of golden sunshine on a dark day. 
When John Hancock remarked solemnly, just prior 
to the signing of the Declaration, ** We must be 
unanimous ; there must be no pulling different ways ; 
we must all hang together," it was the quick-witted 
Pennsylvanian who replied: ** Yes, we must indeed 
all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all 
hang separately. ' ' 

Four days after the " Fourth " Frankhn was 



248 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

elected a delegate to the Convention chosen to form 
a republican government for the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania — a Convention which made him its 
President and gave him the largest number of votes 
received by any of the nine representatives whom it 
sent to Congress. The old Assembly had ceased to 
exist ; Pennsylvania was indeed a sovereign state, 
and the days of the proprietaries were no more. 
The not over-exuberant sum of ;£" 130,000 sterling 
would recompense the Penns for the loss of their 
estates, and close forever the accounts between 
them and their unappreciative " subjects." 

Thus the activities of Franklin seemed to increase 
rather than diminish ; he had tasks which might well 
have taxed the powers of a man but half his age. 
Never did he flinch, however, and he managed to 
divide his time in such a fashion as to produce the 
best results. Frequently he was at the Convention ; 
again he could be found attending the sittings of 
Congress ; at all times was he looked up to as a man 
of commanding intelligence, quick of expedient, 
sound of advice, and leonine of heart in love for the 
new confederation. Soon did the patriot have a 
chance to exercise anew his diplomatic talents in an 
interview with his old friend Lord Howe, who had 
come over to America to command the British naval 
forces operating against New York. The Admiral 
and his brother, Sir William Howe (who was to 
command the army), arrived in a dual capacity, 
being sent either to wage an aggressive campaign, 
or, if possible, to act as commissioners in restoring 
peace between Great Britain and the colonies, Lord 



1776] Struggle for Independence 249 

Howe had a sincere desire to effect reconciliation, 
but as his only remedy was the promising of pardons 
to submissive and repentant colonists, with a vague 
hint of future good-will on the part of the crown 
and Parliament, the prospects of a settlement were 
neither great nor alluring. " Get down on your 
knees and beg our forgiveness, and we may forget 
all your wickedness," was practically the message 
sent by King George and his ministers.^ 

As such a promise was little more than an imper- 
tinence it may be imagined that the Americans did 
not respond to the invitation of the commissioners 
with the hoped-for alacrity. However, after the 
battle of Long Island had been fought, and Lord 
Howe had made overtures for a conference with 
some members of Congress, " as private gentlemen," 
Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge 
were appointed a committee to see the Admiral and 
learn from him ** whether he has any authority to 
treat with persons authorised by Congress for that 
purpose on behalf of America, and what that author- 
ity is, and to hear such propositions as he shall think 
fit to make respecting the same." Howe had 
already written to Franklin in terms of the greatest 
cordiahty. The reply of the philosopher expressed 
the belief that when his lordship found it impossible 

* The commissioners were authorised " to declare any province, 
colony, county, district, or town, to be at peace with His Majesty ; 
that due consideration should be had to the meritorious services of 
any who should aid or assist in restoring the public tranquillity ; that 
their dutiful representations should be received, pardons granted, and 
suitable encouragement to such as would promote the measures of 
legal government and peace, " 



250 Benjamin Franklin [1774- 

to secure ** reconciliation," the latter would '* re- 
linquish so odious a command, and return to a more 
honourable private station." 

The committee were two days in getting from 
Philadelphia to Amboy. The conference took 
place on Staten Island, in an old stone house, one 
room of which had been ** made romantically ele- 
gant " by decorations of moss, and branches of 
trees. The three Congressmen were received by 
Lord Howe with every show of civility and regard ; 
there was liberal entertainment of the gastronomic 
kind, and no end of presenting-of-arms from the 
soldiers. When the wine and the more solid cheer 
were disposed of, my Lord Howe opened the con- 
ference by setting forth his desire for peace, and his 
love for the colonies. " I feel for America as for a 
brother, and if America should fall, I should feel and 
lament it like the loss of a brother, ' ' said the Admiral. 

" My lord," quickly put in Dr. Franklin, with a 
pleasant, smiling bow, and a naive diiv, *' we will use 
our utmost endeavours to save your lordship that 
mortification." Whereupon his lordship remarked, 
" I suppose you will endeavour to give us employ- 
ment in Europe," and then went on to harp upon 
the fact that he was receiving the committee in a 
private capacity rather than as the representative of 
an illegal Congress. 

Dr. Franklin, Your lordship may consider us in any view 
you think proper. We, on our part, are at liberty to consider our- 
selves in our real character. But there is, really, no necessity on 
this occasion to distinguish between members of Congress and indi- 
yiduals. The conversation may be held as among friends. 



1776] Struggle for Independence 251 

Mr. Adams. Your lordship may consider me in what light you 
please. Indeed, I should be willing to consider myself for a few 
moments in any character which would be agreeable to your lordship 
except that of a British subject. 

Lord Howe. Mr. Adams is a decided character. 

Mr. Rutledge. I think, with Dr. Franklin, that the conversa- 
tion may be as among friends. 

A little more conversation disclosed how meagre 
were the powers of the commissioners from his 
Majesty — powers which Lord Howe said were " to 
restore peace and grant pardons, to attend to com- 
plaints and representations, and to confer upon the 
means of a reunion upon terms honourable and ad- 
vantageous to the colonies and to Great Britain." 
He was told very plainly that the Americans would 
never come again under the English Government ; 
that the Declaration of Independence had settled 
the matter, and that " they would not, even if the 
Congress should desire it, return to the King's gov- 
ernment." The conference ended thus: 

Lord Howe. If such are your sentiments, gentlemen, I can 
only lament that it is not in my power to bring about the accommo- 
dation I wish. I have not authority, nor do I ever expect to have, 
to treat with the colonies as states independent of the crown of Great 
Britain. I am sorry, gentlemen, that you have had the trouble of 
coming so far to so little purpose. If the colonies will not give up 
the system of independency, it is impossible for me to enter into any 
negotiation 

Dr. Franklin. It would take as much time for us to refer to 
and get answers from our constituents, as it would the royal commis- 
sioners to get fresh instructions from home, which, I suppose, might 
be about three months. 

Lord Howe. It is in vain to think of my receiving instructions 
to treat upon that ground. 



252 



J 

Benjamin Franklin 



[1776 



Dr. Franklin. Well, my lord, as America is to expect nothing 
but upon unconditional submission 

Lord Howe {interrupting). No, Dr. Franklin. Great Britain 
does not require unconditional submission. I think that what I have 
already said proves the contrary, and I desire, gentlemen, that you 
will not go away with such an idea. 

Dr. Franklin. As your lordship has no proposition to make 
to us, give me leave to ask whether, if we should make propositions 
to Great Britain (not that I know, or am authorised to say we shall), 
you would receive and transmit them ? 

Lord Howe. I do not know that I could avoid receiving any 
papers that should be put into my hands, though I am doubtful of the 
propriety of transmitting them home. Still, I do not say that I 
would decline doing so. 

Having succeeded in accomplishing nothing, un- 
less it were to verify the absurdity of his Majesty's 
proposals for submission, the committee returned 
to Philadelphia and reported the result, or non-result, 
of the interview. Here the matter ended. The 
Revolution went on. 





CHAPTER X 



THE MISSION TO FRANCE 



I 776-1 778 



^^^^^^^OW must come another shifting' of the 
scenes, and a radical one, in a narra- 
tive which has already been as full of 
contrast, perforce, as the changing 
colours of a kaleidoscope. Old-fash- 




EEEmZEIZI 



■ES 



ioned Philadelphia, with its galaxy of delegates, 
who eventually will be driven from the town by the 
adv^ance of the British forces, must give way to the 
far different atmosphere of Paris — the Paris of Louis 
XVI. and Marie Antoinette, of Voltaire and De 
Beaumarchais, of tinsel and gaiety, oppression and 
poverty — the Paris under which is smouldering the 
fire of a coming revolution. It is here, at the 
French capital, that we discover this very Beaumar- 
chais working for the freedom of America, and it is 
here, too, that some of the most famous days of 
Franklin's closing years will be spent. 

To speak of these two men in the same breath 
would seem nothing short of paradoxical were it not 
that, for the nonce, Fate found them labouring, each 

253 



254 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

in his own peculiar way, for the same great cause. 
For Beaumarchais, the brilliant, the adventurous, 
the unstable, saw in the struggles of the colonists 
just enough of the romantic to appeal to his chame- 
leon-like, volatile disposition. The man who had 
begun life as an obscure but clever watchmaker, and 
who had finally penetrated into the sacred circle of 
the French court, there to enjoy the intimacy of the 
poor King Louis and to receive kind words and 
glances from Marie Antoinette, knew so much of 
the dash and picturesqueness of existence that the 
dangers, the uncertainties, of American defiance ex- 
erted for him an undoubted fascination. That he 
looked upon England as the natural foe of France 
made his sympathy all the keener, nor was he slow 
to point out to his sovereign the benefits to be de- 
rived, selfish and sentimental, from any aid furnished 
the insurgents across the ocean. It was an idea which 
had occurred to other Frenchmen, but it had not 
always the benefit of so eloquent an advocate, or of 
one so near the ear of government, as the Sieur de 
Beaumarchais. 

The ex-watchmaker took flying trips to London, 
to find out how war and politics were going; he 
drew up a memorial to the King, which he entitled 
"Peace or War," and he employed all his plausibility 
to convince his Majesty and the Count de Ver- 
gennes, Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the time 
had come for weakening England by strengthening 
the hand of her rebellious provinces. It was the only 
way to preserve France from British aggression, he 
told the King, for " if England triumphs, they will 




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1778] The Mission to France 255 

seek to make up the cost necessary for such a 
struggle by seizing our West India sugar islands," 
while " if America conquers the English will try to 
make up the loss of some of her American colonies 
by acquiring all of ours." He further informed the 
monarch that Arthur Lee (who had succeeded to 
Franklin's agency in London, where he was now 
stationed as a sort of private emissary for Congress) 
** offers a secret treaty of commerce in exchange for 
secret help," finally concluding that " we can pre- 
serve peace only by giving aid to the Americans; 
two or three millions may save us our sugar islands, 
worth three hundred." 

At last Beaumarchais won the day. He was to 
be the medium of assisting the Americans, but the 
aid should be given stealthily, and in a peculiar 
manner. So much the more attractive became the 
scheme to this iridescent individual; to let him 
carry it out in a mysterious fashion was to please 
his sense of the theatrical. In fine, it was agreed, 
after hesitation and discussion, that a commercial 
house should be established in Paris with a capital 
of two millions of francs (contributed in equal parts 
by France and Spain), for the purpose of sending to 
the colonies the supplies needed in the maintenance 
of the war. Ostensibly the business was to be a 
private enterprise, and De Vergennes made this a 
sine qua nojt with Beaumarchais, who was to be the 
head of the new house. 

"The operation," said the Count, "must have essentially in the 
eyes of the English Government, and even in the eyes of the Ameri- 
cans, the aspect of an individual speculation, to which we are Strang- 



256 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

ers. That it may be so in appearance, it must be so to a certain 
extent in reality. We will give you secretly a million. We will 
endeavour to persuade the court of Spain to unite in giving you an- 
other. With these two millions you shall found a great commercial 
establishment, and at your own risk and peril you shall furnish to 
America arms and everything else necessary to sustain war. Our 
arsenals will deliver to you arms and munitions, but you shall pay 
for them. You will not demand money of the Americans, for they 
have none ; but you can ask return in their staple products." 

The project was hailed with delight by the spirited 
Beaumarchais; it promised more intrigue than the 
plot of his recently produced comedy, TJie Barber 
of Seville. In August of 1776 a new firm, bearing 
the grandiloquent name of " Roderique Hortalez et 
Cie," put up its sign at the old Hotel de HoUande, 
and it need hardly be added that the senior partner 
who installed himself in the building was not a Sefior 
Hortalez. There was " no such person " as Sefior 
Hortalez ; the head of the establishment was a poetic 
and uncommercial gentleman, who thus found him- 
self, as he had often done before, in a very interest- 
ing situation.* 

Where was the less romantic Franklin during this 
little court conspiracy ? To answer that question 
we must go back for a second to Philadelphia, where 
some time before (November 29, 1775), the doctor 
had been placed on a committee of Congress, from 
whose labours may be traced the course of events 
that led up to the great French alliance. As this 
committee was authorised to carry on a secret cor- 
respondence ** with friends in Great Britain, Ireland, 

* See Parton ; also Franklin in France^ by Edward E. Hale and 
Edward E. Hale, Jr. 



1778] The Mission to France 257 

and other parts of the world," and to find out, by 
the emj^loyment of confidential agents, what assist- 
ance America might expect from foreign powers, it 
is self-evident that no better man could have been 
chosen to head it than the astute ex-agent of Lon- 
don. The delicacy of the task appealed to him ; he 
was soon sending despatches to Europe, one of 
which was addressed to his Parisian friend and ad- 
mirer. Dr. Dubourg. Then came a bit of diplomacy 
of the kind that would have gladdened the heart of 
the far-away Beaumarchais. The committee chose 
Silas Deane, of Connecticut, to make a quiet trip 
to Paris, in the guise of an inoffensive American 
merchant, and to find out how much of practical 
friendship and support the colonies might expect 
from the government of Louis XVL So Deane 
stole away one day in April (1776), loaded with let- 
ters, cautions from Franklin, and some invisible ink 
wherewith he was to write his reports. The innocu- 
ous name of " Timothy Jones " would be affixed to 
such of his letters as might meet the public eye, and 
it was understood that he should go so far in his in- 
cognito as to buy a cargo or so of goods, in the hope 
of drawing wool over the eyes of the curious by 
giving to his character of merchant the semblance 
of reality. The wool was not very thick, as it came 
to pass; Mr. Deane was soon able to emerge into 
the light of day and to pursue his labours with a 
trifle less circumspection. The new condition of 
things might not be as thrilling as the story of a 
future ** revolutionary novel," but it would have 

compensations. 
17 



258 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

In September, when the American cause seemed 
in anything but a briUiant shape from the mihtary 
point of view, and when the necessity of aid from 
France was becoming more and more apparent, 
FrankHn received an interesting letter from the 
friendly Dr. Dubourg. The Frenchman, as he in- 
formed his " dear master," had bestirred himself 
valiantly in behalf of Congress and the colonies. 

" Knowing that the United States had pressing need of a certain 
kind of men, and a certain kind of provisions," he wrote, " I have 
exerted myself to procure both the one and the other for her. I have 
knocked (if I may so express myself) at every door for that end ; I 
have talked vaguely to some, enigmatically to others ; I have half 
confided to many and as little as possible have I wholly confided in 
anyone whatever, except the King's ministers and a nephew, of 
whom I am thoroughly satisfied, and whom I have drawn from his 
own province on purpose to second me in everything. I have had 
the satisfaction of being well received in every quarter, and of seeing 
that no one demands other assurances than my own word to treat 
with me upon affairs of the greatest consequence, and concerning 
which I freely acknowledge to have received neither full power, nor 
even the least commission or instruction, by word of mouth any 
more than by letter. Ministers to whom I have never made my 
court have given me the most flattering marks of confidence from 
my first interview ; have talked to me without winding or mystery ; 
have discussed with me the weightiest matters ; and have deliberated 
with me the plans to be pursued, and the means to accomplish them. 
Private individuals, merchants, military men, and others, have at- 
tended without scruple to take from me conditional arrangements, 
promising to execute them when it shall be required, though I had 
declared to them, on my part, that I could not warrant anything at 
all positively." 

Nothing could show better than this how the wind 
of French favour was blowing towards America. 

" I have been six (and three times more in the latter part of June) 
different times to Versailles within a month," continued the savant. 



I77S] The Mission to France 259 

" to see not only the ministers, but everyone who approaches them 
or continues near them, and to sound or get sounded the dispositions 
of everyone ; for it must not be thought that they are all equally 
well-intentioned ; however, I wanted to draw some advantage from 
all. And, in fact, though I had rather praise some than others, yet 
there is not one of whom I could complain without ingratitude." 

Dubourg then went on to state what he had been 
able to accomplish in a practical way. He had ob- 
tained from the royal arsenals, in a mysterious, 
roundabout manner, some fifteen thousand muskets, 
and he could have secured brass cannon after the 
same method were it not " for the circumstance of 
their bearing the King's arms and cipher, which 
made them too discoverable." He had obtained 
long furloughs for French officers of artillery, who 
might come over to America, and he had been use- 
ful in other directions of a warlike nature. His 
attachment to Franklin, explained the enthusiastic 
Dubourg, answered sufficiently for his devotion to 
the aims of Congress. " I would die contented," 
he said, " could I see my country and yours in- 
timately united ; and could I contribute towards it, 
I should be at the summit of my wishes." 

This letter, the first definite news which had come 
from Paris relative to the kindly disposition of the 
French ministry — acted on Congress as a pleasant 
stimulant and had for its immediate result the ap- 
pointment of Franklin, Jefferson, and Silas Deane 
as envoys to the court of King Louis. Jefferson 
was obliged to decline service in France, owing to 
the illness of his wife, and Arthur Lee, whose jeal- 
ousy and pettiness of spirit were to give the philo- 
sopher many a weary quarter of an hour, had the 



26o Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

honour of being elected in the place of the greater 
Virginian. Lee was then in London. As for our 
doctor, he never for an instant shirked the responsi- 
bility of the mission, or pleaded, as he might well 
have done, the weight of his seventy years. " I am 
old and good for nothing," he said to Dr. Rush, 

but as the store-keepers say of their remnants of 
cloth, I am but a fag end, and you may have me for 
what you please." There was, of course, a little 
affectation of modesty in such a speech. Had 
Franklin suspected for an instant that he was so 
much of a " fag end " as to be of no more use to 
his country he would have been too wise — too proud, 
indeed — to venture once again upon an uncomfort- 
able ocean. He knew that there was yet in him a 
deal of the old-time energy. 

After having shown the practical quality of his 
patriotism by loaning the sorely pressed Congress 
the substantial sum of nearly four thousand pounds, 
and gladdened by the secret intelligence that France 
proposed to send over to America a liberal quantity 
of arms and ammunition ere the beginning of the 
next campaign, Dr. Franklin sailed from Marcus 
Hook in the Reprisal, a swift sloop-of-war. Heaven 
alone knew when or how he would return, for the 
outlook for America was far from radiant ; New 
York was in the power of the British ; there seemed 
only too much reason to fear that the Revolution 
might end in ignominious collapse. The envoy was 
accompanied by two grandsons, William Temple 
Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache, lads who 
must have found the exciting voyage (enlivened by 



1778] The Mission to France 261 

the inevitable pursuit of the sloop by English cruis- 
ers and by the ReprisaV s capture of two prizes) quite 
in harmony with the adventurous ideals of unthink- 
ing youth. To the grandfather, the attentions of 
the enemy could not have appeared so attractive ; 
yet he kept up a characteristic serenity, made some 
experiments to throw new light on the presence of 
the Gulf Stream, and arrived at Quiberon Bay, on 
the 29th of November, so fatigued by the experience 
that he could scarcely stand. He had reached the 
cordial atmosphere of France not a whit too soon. 
Silas Deane, whose abilities were not of a kind to 
move mountains, and Arthur Lee were sadly in 
need of the third member of the American legation. 
To Deane, indeed, the path of diplomacy had 
latterly been strewn with thorns ; few primroses 
were to be found growing along its devious, uncer- 
tain way. Upon his arrival at Versailles he had 
secured a non-official interview with M. de Ver- 
gennes (the American was then playing the opera- 
bouffe role of conspirator, or merchant, and deceiving 
no one), and was assured by the minister that France 
would indirectly aid the sending of war supplies to 
the colonies, but that for the present she could do 
nothing openly. To prevent a rupture with Eng- 
land it would be necessary to act under the rose, or 
to pursue what we might irreverently term a purely 
winking policy. Next, the fantastic Beaumarchais 
appeared on the scene ; the new firm of Roderique 
Hortalez and Company established an entente cor- 
diale with the envoy ; the comedy-writing French- 
man and the commonplace Connecticut lawyer 



262 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

became bosom friends ; ere long merchandise and 
warlike stores were awaiting shipment to America. 
The pretended Hortalez revelled in the situation, 
cultivated an air of comic mystery, and acted his 
part with much light-and-airy bravado, but his mas- 
querade was soon discovered, even by Lord Stor- 
mont, the indignant British Ambassador. The 
purposes of the new firm, though not its aid from 
government, were apparent. 

" From a Frenchman that I was," Beaumarchais relates, " I be- 
came an American merchant, a politician, and a writer. I imparted 
my warmth to honest but timid minds, and formed a society under a 
name unknown. I gathered together merchandise and warlike 
stores in all our ports, always under fictitious names. Your agent 
[Deane] was to have provided vessels to transport them to America ; 
but not one could he find ; and it was still I who, with double zeal 
and labour, succeeded in procuring them for him at Marseilles, 
Nantes, and Havre, paying out of my own pocket two thirds of the 
freight in advance, and finding security for the remainder. The 
most severe orders everywhere thwarted my operations. What I 
could not accomplish in the open day, was executed in the night. If 
government caused my vessels to be unloaded in one port, I sent 
them secretly to re-load at a distance in the roads. Were they 
stopped under their proper names, I changed them immediately, or 
made pretended sales, and put them anew under fictitious commis- 
sions. Were obligations in writing exacted from my captains to go 
nowhere but to the West India Islands, powerful gratifications on my 
part made them yield again to my wishes. Were they sent to prison 
on their return, for disobedience, I then doubled their gratifications 
to keep their zeal from cooling, and consoled them with gold for the 
rigour of our government. Voyages, messengers, agents, presents, 
rewards — no expense was spared. One time, by reason of an unex- 
pected counter-order, which stopped the departure of one of my ves- 
sels, I hurried by land to Havre twenty-one pieces of cannon, which, if 
they had come from Paris by water, would have retarded us ten days." 

From this it will be seen that the French Govern- 



1778] The Mission to France 263 

ment often had to oppose, for political reasons, and 
at the behest of Lord Stormont, the very man it 
desired to help. Indeed, it was not until after many 
delays and hindrances that Beaumarchais could get 
his stores to the Americans. 

The story reads like a romance, and the matter- 
of-fact Silas Deane must have rubbed his amazed 
eyes more than once and wondered if he were not in 
a dream. There were times, however, when stern 
reality rather than visions confronted the American. 
He too often found himself without money or credit, 
unless Beaumarchais came to his rescue; the pros- 
pects for an open alliance with France began to grow 
ominously dim; the British Ambassador lodged 
loud complaints with Vergennes, and all things 
pointed towards failure. And where was Arthur 
Lee ? Trying to sow dissensions and sulking be- 
cause Beaumarchais had made of Deane so intimate 
a friend. The fictitious Hortalez had shifted his 
connection, personal and commercial, from Lee to 
Deane, and thereby put the former gentleman in a 
temper from which he never recovered. 

Meanwhile the doctor has travelled from his ship 
to Nantes, where he becomes the lion of the day, 
and from which place he writes to John Hancock, 
the President of Congress : 

"In thirty days after we left the Capes of Delaware, we came to 
an anchor in Quiberon Bay. I remained on board four days, expect- 
ing a change of wind proper to carry the ship into the river Loire ; 
but the wind seemed fixed in an opposite quarter. I landed at Aury, 
and with some difficulty got hither, the road not being well supplied 
with means of conveyance. . . . Our friends in France have 
been a good deal dejected with the Gazette accounts of advantages 



264 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

obtained against us by the British troops. I have helped them here 
to recover their spirits a little, by assuring them, that we still face the 
enemy, and were under no apprehension of their armies being able to 
complete their junction. I understand that Mr. Lee has lately 
been at Paris, and Mr. Deane is still there, and that an underhand 
supply is obtained from the government of two himdred brass field- 
pieces, thirty thousand firelocks, and some other military stores, 
which are now shipping for America, and will be convoyed by a ship 
of war. The court of England (M. Penet tells me, from whom I 
have the above intelligence) had the folly to demand Mr. Deane to 
be delivered up, but were refused. Our voyage, though not long, 
was rough, and I feel myself weakened by it ; but I now recover 
strength daily, and in a few days shall be able to undertake the jour- 
ney to Paris. I have not yet taken any public character, thinking it 
prudent first to know whether the court is ready and willing to re- 
ceive ministers publicly from the Congress ; that we may neither 
embarrass it on the one hand, nor subject ourselves to the hazard 
of a disgraceful refusal on the other." 

The letter is purposely cheerful in tone, yet it would 
be interesting did we know just what thoughts were 
revolving, as Franklin wrote, in that fur-becapped 
head of his. Did he think the Revolution was to 
end in triumph or in a hanging-party ? * 

Friendly as was France to the cause of the colo- 
nies, the newly arrived envoy might well stop to in- 
quire as to the intentions of the court and ministers. 
He came as the representative of a country over 
which Great Britain still claimed sovereignty, and 
to receive him publicly might bring upon the gov- 
ernment of Louis XVI. a series of undesired com- 



* In a letter written about a month later to Mrs. Hewson, Franklin 
says, in a jocose strain : " Figure to yourself an old man, M'ith grey 
hair appearing under a martin fur cap, among the powdered heads of 
Paris. It is this odd figure that salutes you, with handfulls of bless- 
ings on you and your dear little ones," 



1778] The Mission to France 265 

plications with their neighbours across the Channel. 
So afraid, indeed, of the influence and ability of the 
doctor was Lord Stormont that he threatened to 
leave Paris if the " chief of the American rebels " 
entered the city — a threat which he failed to keep. 
M. de Vergennes evaded the situation, or perhaps 
it is more correct to say that he sat upon the diplo- 
matic fence. He wished to give a sort of vague, 
unofficial recognition to the American and to keep, 
at the same time, a surface peace with the British 
Embassy. More than that he could not do ; an 
alliance with, or an open recognition of, America was 
out of the question ; her star had risen, as it seemed, 
only to be soon extinguished. So Vergennes con- 
tented himself with assuring Lord Stormont that 
a courier had been sent to meet Franklin and 
forbid his coming to the capital; but he added that 
if, by a mischance, the doctor should reach Paris 
without encountering the messenger, the govern- 
ment would not like to send him away, " because 
of the scandalous scene this would present to all 
France, should we respect neither the laws of nations 
nor of hospitalities. ' ' With that my Lord Stormont 
had to be content. 

Of course the courier never put in an appearance. 
Franklin was posting from Nantes as rapidly as 
roads and the rather shaken state of his health per- 
mitted, and getting on his way a taste of the cuisine 
provided by provincial inns. In one of these host- 
elries, says Dame Tradition, he heard that Gibbon, 
he of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire^ 
happened to be a fellow-guest, so he politely sent 



266 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

his compliments to the historian, with the request 
for his agreeable company on that evening. Mr. 
Gibbon, we are told, declined to meet a man who 
had revolted against his King, much as he admired 
the private character of Franklin — a snub to which 
the latter gentleman responded by writing to the 
Englishman that " though Mr. Gibbon's principles 
had compelled him to do without the pleasure of his 
conversation. Dr. Franklin had still such a respect 
for the character of Mr. Gibbon as a gentleman and 
historian that when, in the course of his writing the 
history of the decline and fall of empires, the decline 
and fall of the British Empire should come to be 
his subject, as he expected it soon would, Dr. 
Franklin would be happy to furnish him with ample 
materials which were in his possession." 

The philosopher arrived in Paris just before Christ- 
mas. It is no exaggeration to say that from the 
moment he put his foot in the gay city he became a 
public idol. He did not as yet excite any enthusi- 
asm in court circles (that was forbidden by the 
exigencies of politics and by the spying policy of the 
British Ambassador), but in general society, in the 
domain of science, philosophy, and literature, and 
with the populace, the great " Insurgent " became 
the hero of the hour. So great was his versatility, 
so varied had been his labours, that he was discussed 
in the wine-shops as well as in the salons ; he was 
written about, too, in an almost fulsome vein, and 
thrice welcomed for his wit, learning, devotion to 
liberty, and possibly for his perennial success. The 
Parisians, then, as now, loved the eclat of prosper- 




FRANKLIN FOUND BY DIOGENES. 

FROM AN OLD FRENCH ENGRAVING. 



1778] The Mission to France 267 

ity. They loved oddity, too, and to them Frankhn 
was a new experience, a refreshing contrast to the 
ordinary mould of humanity. Not that he lacked 
polish or savoir faire ; but he came as a breath of 
bracing air from a new country, and brought with 
him that belief in democratic ideals which was fast 
coming into fashion among the cognoscenti of Paris. 
As a novelty for a novelty-seeking people he was a 
shining mark. 

When Franklin retired in a short time to the 
suburb of Passy, where he established himself in a 
state befitting his position, and discarded just 
enough of the much-vaunted American simplicity 
to put on a properly luxurious front before the eyes 
of France, admiration and adulation followed him 
with unrelenting steps. Men and women paid him 
their homage, and hung upon his words as some- 
thing to be treasured and repeated for the benefit of 
posterity. His portrait became the vogue; his say- 
ings were quoted eagerly ^ ; and his appearance at 
the theatre was the signal for applause. 

" His name was familiar to government and people, to Kings, 
courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to 
such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet 
de chambre, coachman or footman, a lady's chambermaid or a scul- 
lion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it, and who did not con- 
sider him a friend to human kind. When they spoke of him they 
seemed to think he was to restore the golden age." f 



* When Franklin was asked as to the truth of an assertion made 
by Lord Stormont he answered, " No, sir, it is not a truth, it is a 
Stormont " — a saying which went the rounds of all Paris, and made 
of " a Stormont " the polite synonym for a lie. 

f John Adams. 



268 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

There was much that proved delightful in all this 
enthusiasm, but like the proverbial cup that cheers 
without intoxicating it did not destroy the equi- 
librium of its recipient. Franklin revelled, after a 
calm fashion, in the society and entertainment of 
congenial hosts, but he never forgot that he had 
come abroad on a mission of the most serious im- 
port. Hardly had he been a week in Paris before 
he was paying a very quiet visit to the Count de 
Vergennes, in company with Messrs. Lee and 
Deane, and receiving from that minister assurances 
of profound esteem, and a hint that France would 
be glad to help America in any way short of break- 
ing the existing relations with Great Britain. Louis 
XVL could not recognise at present the new re- 
public, but there came promise of a secret loan to 
Congress of two million francs. For the rest Frank- 
lin could only work and watch without ceasing, 
arrange with Mr. Deane to keep up the latter's ac- 
tivities with the romantic Beaumarchais, and behave 
as diplomatically as possible to the ardent French 
officers who came to the doctor sighing for commis- 
sions and future glory in the American army. Thus 
events slowly dragged along. The Marquis de La- 
fayette went off to win military laurels in the new 
world ; Arthur Lee tried to visit the court of Spain 
to sound the tocsin of an alliance, but was given to 
understand that his presence in Madrid would be- 
come an embarrassment ; and off across the Atlantic 
the campaign was leading on — the fates only knew 
where. The good philosopher had need for all his 
wisdom and patience ; he put on a merry exterior 



1778] The Mission to France 269 

when he dined with the dear duchesses and com- 
tesses and all the rest of the smart set ; he wrote 
some articles to keep up the public interest in the 
uncertain affairs of the colonies, and doubtless had 
many a hard word to say in private of the bovlne- 
headedness of the storming Stormont. For be it re- 
membered that in reply to two letters sent by the 
envoys to the British Ambassador, concerning the 
exchange of some American seamen confined at 
Portsmouth, his lordship wrote: " The King's Em- 
bassador receives no application from rebels, unless 
they come to implore His Majesty's mercy." This 
letter, which bore neither date nor signature, was 
returned by the envoys with the following laconic 
remark : " In answer to a letter which concerns some 
of the most material interests of humanity, and of 
the two nations. Great Britain and the United 
States of Ajmerica, now at war, we received the in- 
closed indecent paper, as coming from your lordship, 
which we return, for your lordship's more mature 
consideration." The 'Mittle postmaster" had a 
hand in shaping that document. 

Next our malevolent friend Arthur Lee looms up 
like some honest lago. He has returned from Ber- 
lin, after an unsuccessful attempt to secure for his 
country a Prussian alliance, and is in a bad humour 
which grows none the less as he perceives the con- 
tinued adulation bestowed upon his venerable col- 
league. He finds fault with Beaumarchais, despises 
Deane, cultivates a veiled contempt for the doctor, 
and sets himself about to be as disagreeable as pos- 
sible at a time when harmony in the legation is the 



270 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

thing of things to be preserved. He writes home 
accusing Deane of dishonesty and Franklin of in- 
abihty and senility, and while frequently dining at 
the table of the latter is doing all he can to under- 
mine him with the members of Congress. If he can 
get his two fellow-envoys removed to less important 
courts than that of Versailles, and contrive to re- 
main where he now is as an independent plenipoten- 
tiary, so much the better. In the meantime he 
goes on sounding discords and thinking only of self- 
interest, while the fate of his country is hanging in 
the balance and the heart of Franklin, brave as it is, 
beats with a nervousness born of hope deferred. 
Nor are we to forget that it was this marplot who 
prevented Congress from reimbursing the house of 
" Hortalez," by representing that Beaumarchais 
and Deane were seeking to line their private purses. 
Of the internal dissensions to which the conduct of 
Lee gave rise in the Franklin household we need 
not speak; the picture, save for one majestic figure 
in the foreground, would hardly prove alluring. 
Throughout all the unpleasantness Franklin retained 
his dignity, and old as he then was, he yet lived 
long enough to triumph over the spleen of a man 
whose wild ambition outran principle or talent. 

The doctor kept, too, the nimbleness of wit that 
made him a veritable joy to the frequenters of the 
salons. He was always ready with an answer, and 
in eagerness to hear his bon mots the Parisians were 
as so many Boswells to a Dr. Johnson. Once, when 
playing chess with the old Duchess of Bourbon, the 
wary republican took a king which had been put 



1778] The Mission to France 271 

into prize. " Ah," cried the Duchess, " we do not 
take kings so ! " " We do in America," said the 
doctor. On another occasion he upset, by an un- 
expected method, a pet theory of the Abbe Raynal. 
A party in which Frenchmen and Americans were 
equally represented was dining one day at Passy 
with the philosopher, when the Abbe began to wax 
eloquent upon the degeneracy of animals, including 
man, on the American continent. ** Come," spoke 
up the host, '* let us try this question by the fact 
before us. We are here one half Americans and one 
half French, and it happens that the Americans have 
placed themselves on one side of the table, and our 
French friends are on the other. Let both parties 
rise, and we will see on which side nature has degen- 
erated." The Abbe was " a mere shrimp"; the 
other Frenchmen were all small of stature, and the 
American guests happened to be men of height. 
The experiment, while it proved nothing, made a 
good story to tell at Monsieur Raynal's expense. 

As the autumn of 1777 wore on the prospects for 
the poor colonies, so far as the envoys had means 
of judging, were getting darker and darker. Gen- 
eral Burgoyne might have won a brilliant victory in 
America, for all that they knew to the contrary, and 
despite the expectation of further financial help from 
the King, American affairs were not proceeding over 
well in France. Then, to make matters worse, came 
the news that General Howe was in Philadelphia; 
the outlook was as black as night. But Franklin hid 
his fears, as was his wont, and when an Englishman 
said to him, exultingly, " Well, doctor, Howe has 



5 7^ Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

taken Philadelphia," he replied: *' I beg your par- 
don, sir, Philadelphia has taken Howe." Soon this 
continued pluck was to have a fitting reward. In 
the beginning of December there came to Passy a 
courier who bore jubilant despatches. Franklin lost 
for a second his usual imperturbability. '* Sir," he 
demanded, ere there was time to open the letters, 
"is Philadelphia taken?" "Yes," cried the 
courier, " but I have greater news than that; Gen- 
eral Burgoyne and his whole army are prisoners of 
war! 

The glorious news found its way through Europe 
with amazing rapidity. Wherever England had an 
enemy there was rejoicing. The people of Paris 
seemed as elated as if they had won the victory 
themselves, and the exultation of the French minis- 
try, prudently expressed as it was, formed a refresh- 
ing contrast to the gloom of tenacious George III., 
who declared, says the legend, that he would sell 
Hanover and all his private estates before he should 
desert " the cause of his loyal American subjects 
who had suffered so much for him." The time for 
an active foreign policy had arrived ; it was not long 
before M. de Vergennes was sending congratulatory 
messages to Passy, and actually inviting the envoys 
to revive the propositions, which they had hereto- 
fore made in vain, for an alliance with King Louis. 
Dr. Franklin quickly responded to the suggestion 
by writing out the necessary memorial. On the 
i6th of December, M. Gerard, Secretary of the 
Council of State, announced to the expectant house- 
hold at Passy that the King had decided, after care- 



1778] The Mission to France '^H 

ful deliberation, to recognise the independence of 
the Americans, and to make with them " a treaty of 
commerce, and a second treaty for an eventual treaty 
of alliance." The compact was, however, to be 
kept a profound secret for the present, and it was 
not until the 6th of February that the happy envoys 
had the honour of placing their names on the treaties 
which were to add inspiration to America and estab- 
lish war between Great Britain and his Most Christ- 
ian Majesty of France. For Franklin the moment 
was triumphant, and he showed his satisfaction and 
the clearness of his memory in a curiously effective 
way. When he signed the papers, it was observed 
that he wore the famous suit of Manchester velvet 
wherein he was clad on the day of the Privy Council 
outrage.* 

A more resplendent date, suggesting the glitter 
of court costume, the charm of gorgeously appar- 
elled femininity, and the pomp of royalty, is the 



* In commerce each party [to the treaties] was to be placed on the 
footing of the most favoured nation. The King of France promised 
his good offices with the princes and powers of Barbary. As to the 
fisheries, each party reserved to itself the exclusive possession of its 
own. . . . The absolute and unlimited independence of the 
United States was described as the essential end of the defensive alli- 
ance ; and the two parties mutually engaged not to lay down their 
arms until it should be assured by the treaties terminating the war. 
Moreover, the United States guaranteed to France the possessions 
then held by France in America, as well as those which it might ac- 
quire by a future treaty of peace ; and, in like manner, the King of 
France guaranteed to the United States their present possessions and 
acquisitions during the war from the dominions of Great Britain in 
North America. A separate and secret act reserved to the King of 

Spain the power of acceding to the treaties. — Bancroft. 
i8 



2 74 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

20th of March, 1778. It is a red-letter day for 
America. The envoys are to be received in state at 
Versailles; the treaties will be officially acknow- 
ledged. My Lord Stormont, who has, of course, 
known for some time of the existence of the alliance, 
finds his usefulness in the French capital at an end ; 
all subterfuge is thrown to the winds, and France 
emerges into the field as an open abettor of America. 
Before midsummer Count d'Estang will arrive with 
his friendly fleet at the mouth of the Delaware 
River, and from then until the little episode of York- 
town the helping hand of the Gaul will be stretched 
out in full sight of the British ministers. 

On this 20th of March, then, Franklin put on 
an unostentatious black suit, with white silk stock- 
ings and silver buckles, discarded the necessary wig 
(it is said that the one ordered for the occasion was 
too small for his head, and was thrown away by the 
disgusted hair-dresser), and in company with the 
other two envoys — who paled into insignificance 
whenever they appeared with their senior — pro- 
ceeded in state to Versailles. The three gentlemen, 
together with William Lee and Ralph Izard, the un- 
received American ministers to Berlin and Tuscany, 
respectively, were duly presented to Louis XVI., 
who would have taken a more heartfelt interest in 
the ceremonial had it not gone against the royal 
grain to smile upon republicanism. He had yielded 
for reasons of state, but he could not forget that in 
aiding the Americans he was likewise aiding enemies 
of a royal authority akin to his own. Perhaps, even 
then, he had a vague premonition that this would 



1778] The Mission to France 275 

not be his only experience with the relentless march 
of Revolution. 

Yet the King was polite enough. In addressing 
the envoys he was graciously pleased to say that he 
wished Congress to be assured of his friendship, and 
that he was highly satisfied with the conduct of the 
plenipotentiaries during their residence in his king- 
dom. The ceremony was witnessed by a brilliant 
gathering ; there was much enthusiasm, and the 
affair ended with an elaborate dinner given by M. 
de Vergennes. Throughout it all Franklin, and 
only Franklin, had been the real attraction ; his was 
the leading part; his was the honour. Arthur Lee 
must have eaten out his heart in impotent jealousy 
at the popularity of the man who went to court 
with as much confidence and aplomb as if he had 
not, in his dressing, violated the awesome rules of 
royal etiquette. 

In the evening, after the presentation to the King, 
the envoys had the honour of watching members of 
the reigning family play at cards for very high 
stakes. Louis d'ors were scattered in profusion over 
a large table at which sat, among others, the still 
lovely Marie Antoinette. The Queen had a gen- 
erous, if unthinking, sympathy for the American 
rebels. When she saw the doctor enter she asked 
him to stand near her; spoke to him often in the 
most civil terms, and flashed upon the white-haired 
diplomat many a smile that must have gone straight 
to his youthful heart. Poor Richard was indeed the 
fashion. The taste for reckless gambling hardly ap- 
pealed to the preacher of frugality, yet we may be 



276 Benjamin Franklin [1776- 

sure that he comported himself with the dignity of 
a courtier. Wigless he might be — but not witless; 
the apostle of the new regime had that within him 
which appeared passing pleasant in the eyes of the 
fairest member of a dying despotism. It was, in fine, 
the ability of Franklin to appear agreeable to all sorts 
and conditions of humanity, without being under 
the necessity of changing his manners or of divest- 
ing himself of an interesting personality. He had 
long been master of the useful art of self-possession, 
to which he combined a delicacy of tact and a quick- 
ness of apprehension that allowed him to feel at 
home either in a printer's office or in a king's dress- 
ing-room. There is nothing paradoxical in the 
thought of the philosopher hovering near the chair 
of Marie Antoinette, nor is it hard to understand 
how he could number among his admirers two such 
opposite personages as the Queen of France and the 
aged Voltaire. Voltaire embraced the doctor to 
the joy of the French Academicians of Science; 
ladies of the court crowned him with a wreath of 
flowers. 

With a little lessening of the old vigour, with a 
longing for a richly deserved ease, was it strange 
that the envoy found this burning of popular in- 
cense very fragrant and innocently seductive ? Who 
had a greater right than he to so pretty a reward ? 
To be sure, John Adams, when he arrived in Paris 
to replace Silas Deane, was a trifle shocked at the 
worship bestowed upon the idol, and perhaps shook 
his patriotic head over what he might consider the 
demoralisation of a gouty old man who should be 




MARIE ANTOINETTE. 



1778] The Mission to France 277 

back on the banks of the Delaware, there preparing 
his last will and testament. 

" He loves his ease," the New Englander writes to Samuel Adams, 
"hates to offend, and seldom gives any opinion till obliged to do it. 
There are so many private families, ladies and gentlemen, 
that he visits so often, and they are so fond of him, that he cannot 
well avoid it, — and so much intercourse with Academicians, that all 
these things together keep his mind in a constant state of dissipation." 

All of which might be true, yet there is about this 
pen-sketch more of acerbity than charity. 

Amid all this ** constant state of dissipation," 
America — stronger America now, full of life and 
fight, and hope — was still Franklin's leading thought. 
Not only of the America of his own time did he 
muse ; his fancy sometimes carried him away to the 
country as it would be after he had paid the rapidly 
maturing debt of nature. 

" I must soon quit this scene," he writes to General Washington, 
*' but you may live to see our country flourish, as it will amazingly 
and rapidly after the war is over ; like a field of young Indian corn 
which long fair weather and sunshine has enfeebled and discoloured, 
and which in that weak state, by a thunder gust of violent wind, hail, 
and rain, seemed to be threatened with absolute destruction ; yet the 
storm being past, it recovers fresh verdure, shoots up with double 
vigour, and delights the eye, not of its owner only, but of every 
observing traveller." 

Franklin prophesied, as he builded, better than he 
knew. 






CHAPTER XI 

PLAY AND POLITICS 

1777-1783 

)0 read over the correspondence which 
punctuated Franklin's life in France 
is to regret that a volume rather than 
several short paragraphs cannot be 
devoted to the lighter phase of the 
philosopher's exile, wherein we see him acting the 
gallant to clever women, and settling down, ere he 
should leave the earthly scene forever, to warm his 
cheery old heart and gouty limbs in the sunshine of 
enjoyment. Here again appears the versatility of 
the man. One day he is writing upon subjects the 
most abstruse or the most grave, and at another 
time he is gaily describing a fantastic dream for the 
edification of the blue-stocking widow of the great 
Helvetius. " Mortified at the barbarous resolution 
pronounced by you so positively yesterday even- 
ing, that you would remain single the rest of your 
life, as a compliment due to the memory of your 
husband, I retired to my chamber. Throwing my- 
self upon my bed, I dreamt that I was dead, and was 

278 



1783] Play and Politics 279 

transported to the Elysian Fields." Then follows 
the dream, which is described with a grace and airy 
humour more suggestive, let us say, of a Beaumar- 
chais than of the usually matter-of-fact Franklin. 

Another day he resuscitates, for the benefit of his 
friend Monsieur T Abbe de la Roche, a ** little drink- 
ing song which I wrote forty years ago," wherein 
are to be found allusions to Venus, Lucifer, and the 
joys of " friends and a bottle." It is quite in the 
style of (although more grammatically expressed 
than) the inevitable ditty rattled off, to the accom- 
paniment of clinking tin cups, by a sad-eyed chorus 
in comic operetta. Then he has another attack of 
gallantry, and tells his dear Madame Helvetius that 
statesmen, philosophers, historians, poets, and men 
of learning of all sorts are drawn around her " as 
straws about a fine piece of amber." Yet he is the 
correspondent who can write, almost in the same 
breath: " When a religion is good, I conceive that 
it will support itself; and when it cannot support 
itself, and God does not take care to support it, so 
that its professors are obliged to call for the help of 
the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being 
a bad one." * Th^ parsifleiir and the thinker upon 
religion, all in one ! What pleasure he gets from the 
pen; how the using it so frequently keeps him fresh 
and young, besides leaving many an agreeable liter- 
ary tid-bit for posterity! 

When he has the gout he finds distraction from 
the pain by composing a little dialogue between 
himself and his tormentor, which incidentally gives 

* From a letter tp Richard Price, 



28o Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

us a glimpse of his mode of life at seductive 
Passy. 

" You would not only torment my body to death," says the doctor 
to Madam Gout, "but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a 
glutton and a tippler ; now all the world, that knows me, will allow 
that I am neither the one nor the other." 

Gout. The world may think as it pleases ; it is always very 
complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends ; but I very well 
know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who 
takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, 
who never takes any. 

Franklin. I take — eh — oh! as much exercise — eh! ijiere 
a twinge of pain seizes him) as I can. Madam Gout. You know my 
sedentary state, and on that account it would seem, Madam Gout, as 
if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my own 
fault. 

Gout. Not a jot ; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown 
away ; your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a 
sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be 
active. You ought to walk or ride ; or, if the weather prevents that, 
play at billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the 
mornings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you 
do? Why, instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary 
exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, 
which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inor- 
dinate breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two but- 
tered toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things 
the most easily digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to 
write at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on 
business. Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily 
exercise. But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your 
sedentary condition. But what is your practice after dinner ? Walk- 
ing in the beautiful gardens of those friends, with whom you have 
dined, would be the choice of men of sense ; yours is to be fixed 
down to chess,* where you are found engaged for two or three hours. 

* " Dr. Franklin was so immoderately fond of chess, that one 
evening at Passy, he sat at that amusement from six in the afternoon 
till sunrise." — William Temple Franklin, 



1783J Play and Politics 281 

The doctor had diagnosed his own case in this bit 
of pleasantry born of pain, but he never did very 
much in the way of reforming the sedentary ways. 
The routine of his French Hfe was too attractive ; his 
venerable legs had grown too lazy ; it was far easier 
to play chess, or to entertain at his own table, or 
drive to the no longer youthful Veuve Helvetius or 
to the amiable Madame Brillon — ** a lady of most 
respectable character and pleasing conversation." 
At the Brillons the septuagenarian found a second 
home, where he was accustomed to spend at least 
two evenings every week. Madame Brillon, he 
writes, ** has among other elegant accomplishments, 
that of an excellent musician ; and, with her daugh- 
ter, who sings prettily, and some friends who play, 
she kindly entertains me and my grandson with little 
concerts, a cup of tea, and a game of chess. I call 
this my Opera, for I rarely go to the Opera at Paris. 
This is quite an idyllic portrait of the lady in whose 
honour he composed several of his idi-mows Bagatelles, 
including The Ephemera and the Story of tJie Whistle. 
The latter was elevated years ago to the dignity of a 
classic. Who does not recall the familiar cases of the 
unfortunates who paid too much for their whistles ? 

The philosopher not only wrote much while at 
Passy, but he unwittingly inspired several of his 
neighbours to try their own literary powers by com- 
posing verses in his praise. On one memorable oc- 
casion he was made the victim — perhaps not a very 
bored one — of d, fete champetre and a poem, thrust 
upon him by the admiring Countess d'Houdetot, at 
her chateau in the valley of Montmorency. The 



282 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

assembled guests, all members of the Houdetot 
family, did not even wait for the doctor's arrival, 
but walked out about half a mile to meet his car- 
riage. The Countess helped him to alight, and 
broke out with a rhapsodic verse setting forth the 
homage due a man who had made his fellow-citizens 
so happy (** Au mortel qui forma des citoyens 
heureux "). When the chateau was reached, din- 
ner served, and the first glass of wine offered, the 
company continued the poetic infliction by singing 
in chorus another instalment wherein the guest of 
honour was referred to intimately as ** Benjamin." 
Then the Countess sang a verse which politely set 
forth that virtue herself, in order to be adored, had 
assumed the form of Franklin; others drank to the 
philosopher and recited each a stanza of the epic, 
and finally, when dinner was ended, the Countess 
led the doctor to the gardens of Sanoy. Here, 
seated in Arcadian state under an arbour, he was 
presented with a Virginia locust tree, " which, at 
the request of the company, he planted with his 
own hands." To make the ceremony the more im- 
pressive the Countess burst forth with another piece 
of the inevitable poem (afterwards inscribed upon a 
marble pillar near the locust tree), and ere the guest 
could tear himself regretfully away, at eventide, the 
good lady followed him to the door of his carriage, 
speaking a little epilogue, also of her own composi- 
tion : 

" Legislateur d'un monde, et bienfaiteur des deux, 
L'homme dans tous les temps te devra ses hommages ; 
Et je m'acquitte dans ces lieux 
P^ la dett^ de tous les ages," 



1783] Play and Politics 283 

All of which is very pretty without doubt, but we 
must not forget, amid all this atmosphere of pane- 
gyric and private pleasures, to recall briefly the 
political life of Franklin from the time that the 
French alliance was avowed in so open and brilliant 
a form. Not the least interesting phase of his ex- 
perience proved to be the attempt of several mem- 
bers of Parliament to find out from him whether 
there was any possibility of reconciliation with 
America. To one of these Englishmen, David 
Hartley, the envoy wrote that famous letter in reply 
to the curious remark, that the alliance between 
France and America was ** the great stumbling- 
block in the way of making peace." It is a letter 
which shows us how the once ardent admiration for 
George III., the '* very best " of kings, had gone 
the way of vain illusions. 

"We know," says Franklin, "that your King hates Whigs and 
Presbyterians; that he thirsts for our blood, of which he has already 
drunk large draughts [obstinate, and worse, the King surely was, 
but to paint him as a melodramatic yearner after blood is hardly just 
on the doctor's part] ; that weak and unprincipled ministers are ready 
to execute the wickedest of his orders, and his venal Parliament 
equally ready to vote them just. Not the smallest appearance of a 
reason can be imagined, capable of inducing us to think of relinquish- 
ing a solid alliance with one of the most amiable, as well as most 
powerful princes of Europe, for the expectation of unknown terms of 
peace, to be afterwards offered to us by such a government ; a gov- 
ernment, that has already shamefully broken all the compacts it ever 
made with us. This is worse than advising us to drop the substance 
for the shadow. The dog, after he found his mistake, might possi- 
bly have recovered his mutton ; but we could never hope to be trusted 
again by France, or indeed by any other nation under heaven. We 
know the worst you can do to us, if you have your wish, is, to con- 
fiscate our estates and take our lives, to rob and murder us ; and this 



284 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

you have seen we are ready to hazard, rather than come again under 
your detested government." 

The writer had no desire to fasten any of this 
criticism upon the peace-loving Hartley, and he 
adds: 

"You must observe, my dear friend, that I am a little warm. 
Excuse me. It is over. Only let me counsel you not to think of 
being sent hither on so fruitless an errand, as that of making such a 
proposition. It puts me in mind of the comic farce entitled, God- 
send ; or. The Wreckers. You may have forgotten it ; but I will 
endeavour to amuse you by recollecting a little of it." 

This is the " comic farce," as Franklin gives it 
for Hartley's edification: 

Scene. — Mount's Bay. 

(A ship riding at anchor in a great storm. A lee shore full of 
rocks, and lined with people, furnished with axes and carriages to cut 
up wrecks, knock the sailors on the head, and carry off the plunder ; 
according to custoni.) 

First Wrecker. This ship rides it out longer than I expected ; 
she must have good ground tackle. 

Second Wrecker. We had better send off a boat to her, and 
persuade her to take a pilot, who can afterward run her ashore, 
where we can best come at her. 

Third Wrecker. I doubt whether the boat can live in this 
sea ; but if there are any brave fellows willing to hazard themselves 
for the good of the public, and a double share, let them say " Ay." 

Several Wreckers. I, I, I, I. {^The boat goes off, and comes 
under the ship'' s stern.) 

Spokesman. So ho, the ship, a hoa ! 

Captain. Hulloa. 

Sp. Would you have a pilot ? 

Capt. No, no ! 

Sp. It blows hard, and you are in danger. 



1783] Play and Politics 285 

Capt. I know it. 

Sp. Will you buy a better cable ? We have one in the boat 
here. 

Capt. What do you ask for it ? 

Sp. Cut that you have, and then we '11 talk about the price of 
this. 

Capt. I shall do no such foolish thing. I have lived in your 
parish formerly, and know the heads of ye too well to trust ye ; keep 
off from my cable there ; I see you have a mind to cut it yourselves. 
If you go any nearer to it, I '11 fire into you and sink you. 

Sp. It is a rotten French cable, and will part of itself in half 
an hour. Where will you be then, Captain? You had better take 
our offer. 

Capt. You offer nothing, you rogues, but treachery and mis- 
chief. My cable is good and strong, and will hold long enough to 
baulk all your projects. 

Sp. You talk unkindly, Captain, to people who come here only 
for your good. 

Capt. I know you come for all our goods, but, by God's help, 
you shall have none of them : you shall not serve us as you did the 
Indiamen. 

Sp. Come, my lads, let's be gone. This fellow is not so great 
a fool as we took him to be. 

In comparing the English ministry to a party of 
wreckers Franklin may have been unnecessarily 
severe; yet he was justified in growing indignant 
when a sane Englishman suggested a breaking of 
the French treaties, and a return to the uncertain 
mercies and condescensions of George III. and his 
Parliament. This was not the only chance the en- 
voy had for plain writing upon the subject of im- 
possible reconciliations. Once a paper addressed 
to him was thrown into a window of the legation ; 
upon examination it proved to be a letter signed 

Charles de Weissenstein," dated from Brussels, 
June i6 (1778), and containing a fantastic plan for 



286 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

settling the war,^ with suggestions for pensioning 
off the leading patriots, and for the creating of 
American peers. The paper was taken with much 
seriousness. FrankHn, who beheved that it had 
been inspired by King George, wrote an answer 
which was expected to bring the blood tingling into 
the royal ears. As it happened, the answer never was 
sent to " Weissenstein," but it has been preserved 
for us in the great mass of Frankliniana, and we 
cannot easily forget this unmistakable dig at the 
political morals of his Britannic Majesty: 

" I now indeed recollect my being informed, long since, when in 
England, that a certain very great personage, then young, studied 
much a certain book, called Arcana Imperii, I had the book and 
read it. There are sensible and good things in it, but some bad 
ones ; for, if I remember rightly, a particular King is applauded for 
his politically exciting a rebellion among his subjects, at a time when 
they had not strength to support it, that he might, in subduing them, 
take away their privileges, which were troublesome to him ; and a 
question is formally stated and discussed. Whether a prince^ who, to 
appease a revolt, makes promises of indemnity to the revolters, is 
obliged to fulfil those pro?nises. Honest and good men would say, 
Ay ; but this politician says, as you say, No." 

And again the writer says, in pointed terms: 

"This offer to corrupt us, sir, is with me your credential, and con- 
vinces me that you are not a private volunteer in your application. It 
bears the stamp of British court character. It is even the signature 
of your King." 



* In case his Majesty, or his successors, should ever create Ameri- 
can peers (so wrote the unknown peacemaker), then Franklin, Wash- 
ington, John Adams, Hancock, and others, "shall be among the 
first created, if they choose it ; Mr. Washington to have immediately 
a brevet of Lieutenant-General, and all the honours and precedence 
incident thereto, but not to assume or bear any command without a 
special warrant, or letter of service, for that purpose, from the King." 



1783] Play and Politics 287 

" Weissenstein," the inscrutable, had advised 
Franklin that the reply must be given to a stranger 
who would be found on a certain Monday in the 
Cathedral of Notre Dame, and who was to wear a 
rose in his hat by way of identification. The tryst 
was not kept ; the letter was held back in deference 
to the wishes of the French Government. John 
Adams (who was now duly established in the lega- 
tion as the successor to Silas Deane) relates that 
the day after the one appointed for the meeting M. 
de Vergennes sent a police report, stating that at 
the hour and place suggested by the mysterious cor- 
respondent " a gentleman appeared, and finding 
nobody, wandered about the church, gazing at the 
statues and pictures, and other curiosities of that 
magnificent cathedral, never losing sight, however, 
of the spot appointed, and often returning to it, 
looking earnestly about, at times, as if he expected 
somebody. His person, stature, figure, air, com- 
plexion, dress, and everything about him were ac- 
curately and minutely described. He remained two 
hours in the church, and then went out, was fol- 
lowed through every street, and all his motions 
watched to the hotel where he lodged." ** We 
were told," continues Adams, " the day he arrived 
there, the name he assumed, which was Colonel 
Fitz — something — an Irish name that I have forgot- 
ten — the place he came from, and time he set off to 
return. . . . Whether the design was to seduce 
us Commissioners, or whether it was thought that 
we should send the project to Congress, and that 
they might be tempted by it, or that disputes might 



288 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

be excited among the people, I know not. In either 
case it was very weak and absurd, and betrayed a 
gross ignorance of the genius of the American 
people." 

The idea of the King of Great Britain seeking to 
get up a clandestine correspondence with his one- 
time admirer — if that idea be not idle fancy — and 
the presence in Notre Dame of a secret emissary to 
accomplish that purpose, supply quite the flavour of 
romance. We see here and there other flashes of 
the picturesque as we pursue the path of Franklin 
— see him hobnobbing with Beaumarchais, his anti- 
thesis, or sending a courier to London to confer 
with members of Opposition in Parliament,* or ex- 
tending aid and friendship to that prince of dashing 
privateers. Captain Paul Jones. It was Jones who 
gave to one of the vessels in his prize-taking fleet 
the name of the Bon Homme Richard, because he 
had secured this fourteen-year-old ship from the 
French Government by acting upon Poor Richard' s 
maxim: ** If you would have your business done, 
come yourself; if not, send." He had gone to 
Versailles, after much weary waiting, and obtained 
by his presence what any amount of correspondence 
had failed to accomplish. It was to Paul Jones 
whom Franklin wrote, when the commander was 
preparing for a descent upon the English coast, that 



* Jonathan Loring Austin, the courier who brought to the envoys 
at Passy the news of Burgoyne's surrender. During his dangerous 
stay in England he was domesticated in the family of Lord Shel- 
burne, and was actually introduced to the young Prince of Wales 
(later George IV,) when that prince was in company with Mr. Fox. 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN 1779. 

FROM AN OIL PAINTING IN THE POSSESSION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



1783] Play and Politics 289 

" although the English have wantonly burned many 
defenceless towns in America, you are not to follow 
this example, unless when a reasonable ransom is 
refused ; in which case your own generous feelings 
as well as this instruction will induce you to give 
timely notice of your intention, that sick and an- 
cient persons, women and children, may be first 
removed." It was Jones who replied, like a sea- 
soned courtier: " The letter I had the honour to 
receive from you to-day would make a coward 
brave." 

Perhaps the most blessed personal incident for 
Franklin, was the departure from France of Arthur 
Lee. In company with the suspicious Ralph Izard, 
the unreceived minister to Tuscany, Lee had done 
all he could to undermine the reputation of his 
chief. Fortunately that reputation was too great to 
be affected in any permanent way, but the tension 
of the situation became extremely disagreeable as 
the eyes of the senior were gradually opened to the 
treachery about him. The pitiful wrangling is best 
described by what he told John Adams, on the 
latter's arrival from America, namely, that Lee was 

a man of an anxious, uneasy temper, which made 
it disagreeable to do business with him ; that he 
seemed to be one of those men, of whom he had 
known many in his day, who went on through life 
quarrelling with one person or another, till they 
commonly ended with the loss of their reason." 
Ralph Izard, he further informed Mr. Adams, " was 
joined in close friendship with Mr. Lee; that Mr. 
Izard was a man of violent and ungoverned pas- 



290 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

sions ; that each of these had a number of Ameri- 
cans about him, who were always exciting disputes, 
and propagating stories that made the service very 
disagreeable." Mr. Izard, indeed, did not hesitate 
to write home to Congress that Franklin was guided 
by principles neither of virtue nor of honour, while 
Arthur Lee professed to have quite as low an opinion 
of the philosopher. Again, it was through the nasty 
charges made by Lee that Silas Deane fell into bad 
odour with the Continental legislators. Deane was 
accused of acting dishonestly in the business of his 
French mission, and as the indirect outcome of the 
lies told about him, he was to die poor, and estranged 
from his native land. 

However distressing all this plotting and schem- 
ing proved, relief finally came in the shape of the 
Marquis de Lafayette, who drove to see Franklin 
one day in February, 1779, bringing with him from 
America the commission of Congress appointing the 
doctor sole plenipotentiary to France. The three 
commissioners had agreed that the interests of 
America would be best served by the maintaining 
of only one envoy, but it would be going many 
lengths too far to add that two of them were united 
in hoping that Franklin would be the fortunate man. 
Franklin was the fortunate man, however; and it is 
with pleasure, and good-bye assurances of contempt, 
that Mr. Izard (now recalled to America) and Mr. 
Lee make their exits from our narrative. To follow 
them further would serve no useful purpose, al- 
though it is worth the noting that ere Lee gave up 
the fight his friends in Congress made a desperate 



1783] Play and Politics 291 

but unsuccessful effort to secure the recall of Frank- 
lin, and to put the Virginian in his place. It was 
high time that the unrest at the legation should be 
succeeded by a more peaceful environment. The 
sole plenipotentiary had his hands full in dealing, at 
long range, with the financial problems besetting 
Congress, and coaxing loans from the French Gov- 
ernment — a line of diplomacy wherein his skill is 
shown from the fact that he secured in this wise, 
from 1777 to 1782, some 26,000,000 francs. 

Although we have thus bid farewell to Messrs. 
Lee and Izard we must renew our acquaintance with 
another of the Passy household, the sturdy John 
Adams, under rather unpleasant conditions. For 
after going home to America for a brief visit Mr. 
Adams returns to France in the February of 1780, 
armed with powers to arrange a peace with Eng- 
land, at some future day, and is soon involved in a 
controversy with the Count de Vergennes. Per- 
haps the American forgot how necessary it was to 
act with tact towards a minister who had shown him- 
self so friendly to the colonies ; perhaps he wrote 
more than was consonant with a diplomatic reserve, 
but view the affair as we will, according to our per- 
sonal bias, it is certain that the two men fell out, 
and that Vergennes thought Adams deficient in the 
necessary gratitude, or politeness, for the good 
offices of France. The matter came to an open 
rupture when the New Englander wrote to the min- 
ister that he doubted the usefulness of the fleet 
which had sailed for America under De Rocham- 
beau. At this De Vergennes notified Adams that 



292 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

he would no longer correspond with him — ** Mr. 
Franklin being the sole person who has letters of 
credence to the King from the United States " — and 
the Count even went so far as to ask Franklin to 
submit his reply to Congress. 

The doctor found himself in a delicate predica- 
ment. He had no desire to do anything to the 
prejudice of John Adams, yet he knew far better 
than did that impolitic gentleman the necessity for 
keeping on the fairest terms with the minister. 
America — money-wanting America — was in no con- 
dition to dispense with so valued an ally as France. 
So he took the bull by the horns and wrote to the 
President of Congress a frank letter in which he set 
forth the circumstance of the quarrel. 

" It is true," he said, " that Mr. Adams's proper business is else- 
where ; but the time not being come for that business, and having 
nothing else here wherewith to employ himself, he seems to have 
endeavoured to supply what he may suppose my negotiation defective 
in. He thinks, as he tells me himself, that America has been too 
free in expressions of gratitude to France ; for that she is more 
obliged to us than we to her ; and that we should show spirit in our 
applications, I apprehend that he mistakes his ground, and that this 
court is to be treated with decency and delicacy. The King, a young 
and virtuous prince, has, I am persuaded, a pleasure in reflecting on 
the generous benevolence of the action in assisting an oppressed 
people, and proposes it as a part of the glory of his reign. I think it 
right to increase this pleasure by our thankful acknowledgments, and 
that such an expression of gratitude is not only our duty, but our 
interest. A different conduct seems to me what is not only improper 
and unbecoming, but what may be hurtful to us. Mr. Adams, on 
the other hand, who, at the same time, means our welfare and inter- 
est as much as I, or any man, can do, seems to think a little apparent 
stoutness, and a greater air of independence and boldness in our de- 
mands, will procure us more ample assistance. It is for Congress to 



1783] Play and Politics 293 

judge and regulate their affairs accordingly. . . . It is my inten- 
tion, while I stay here, to procure what advantages I can for our 
country, by endeavouring to please this court ; and I wish I could 
prevent anything being said by any of our countrymen here, that may 
have a contrary effect, and increase an opinion lately showing itself in 
Paris, that we seek a difference, and with a view of reconciling our- 
selves to England. Some of them have of late been very indiscreet in 
their conversations." 

Fortunately for all and everything concerned, the 
indiscretions of Mr. Adams had no sequel, beyond 
the inevitable discussion of the matter by Congress. 
That he came very near to becoming an uninten- 
tional mischief-maker cannot be doubted. He had 
arrived in Paris much impressed with the idea of 
trying to open immediate negotiations for a peace 
with England ; M. de Vergennes thought, or pre- 
tended to think, that the time had not come for com- 
municating with the British Government ; and from 
this difference of opinion the American had foolishly 
drifted into a quarrel. But to dvv^ell upon this epi- 
sode would be ungracious ; to pick flaws in so valiant 
a champion of America as honest John Adams is 
not our mission. 

Rather let us carry on our chronicle to the final 
achievements of Franklin in that diplomatic sphere 
for which it might be said that nature specially had 
intended him, were it not that he seemed equally at 
home in other lines of usefulness. Now the Revolu- 
tion has reached its climax; Lord Cornwallis has 
surrendered at Yorktown (October 17, 1781); the 
philosopher is to use his powers in the direction of 
reconciliation. An as opponent to England he has 
proved a veritable giant ; as a peace-maker, in a role 



294 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

well suited to the mellowness and charity of old age, 
he will be hardly less successful. 

In the spring of 178 1 the doctor had asked per- 
mission of Congress to retire from the French mis- 
sion, but instead of relieving him that body merely 
put another task upon the envoy by appointing him 
joint commissioner, with John Jay and John Adams, 
to settle terms of peace. Later, when Lord North 
and his colleagues give way to a Whig ministry, 
informal negotiations are already in progress, and 
Franklin is writing to Lord Shelburne, of the new 
cabinet, expressing his hope for a general peace, 

which I am sure your lordship, with all good men, 
desires, which I wish to see before I die, and to 
which I shall, with infinite pleasure, contribute 
everything in my power." This friendly note was 
unofficial, but it brought a response from Shelburne, 
and also an agent of his lordship's in the person of 
Richard Oswald, a merchant who was to find out 
the views of Franklin and to talk over the whole 
question of amity between France, America, and 
Great Britain. There were conferences between 
the agent, the envoy, and the Count de Vergennes, 
and once, after returning from Versailles, Oswald 
intimated that if in any proposed settlement France 
should make humiliating demands of England, " the 
spirit of the nation would be roused, unanimity 
would prevail, and resources would not be wanting." 
As Franklin relates : 

" He [Oswald] said, there was no want of money in the nation ; 
that the chief difficulty lay in the finding out new taxes to raise it ; 
and, perhaps, that difficulty might be avoided by shutting up the 




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1783] Play and Politics 295 

Exchequer, stopping the payment of the mterest to the public funds, 
and applying that money to the support of the war, I made no re- 
ply to this ; for I did not desire to discourage their stopping pay- 
ment, which I considered as cutting the throat of the public credit, 
and a means of adding fresh exasperation against them with the 
neighbouring nations. Such menaces were besides an encourage- 
ment with me, remembering the adage that they who threaten are 
afraid'' 

Franklin, in his intercourse with Oswald, dis- 
played his usual tact and caution, and quite won 
over that emissary to his own way of thinking. He 
went further than this, however, by boldly suggest- 
ing the cession of Canada to the United States, in a 
paper called "Notes for Conversation," which, after 
a proper show of diffidence, he allowed the agent to 
convey to Lord Shelburne. It was a suggestion, of 
course, which could not be seriously considered, but 
nothing was lost, as the astute American must have 
realised, in putting his own case on an ambitious 
level. 

To attempt to describe all that went before the 
peace — the vast amount of correspondence, the in- 
terviews, the fluctuations of the British ministry, the 
scheming of the Count de Vergennes, the manoeu- 
vring of Messrs. Franklin, Jay, and Adams — would 
be to get entangled in a maze of data to which only 
a lengthy story could do justice. To delve into the 
details is to become absorbed in something that 
reads like a diplomatic novel ; and the chronicler 
who does so is sorely tempted to quote therefrom 
far beyond the limits of space assigned to him. The 
provocation is great, and in one instance must it be 
yielded to, in describing a little contretemps. The 



296 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

humour of it was not lost sight of by Franklin, who 
wrote an account of the incident on the day it hap- 
pened : 

" The Count du Nord, who is son of the Empress of Russia, ar- 
riving at Paris, ordered, it seems, cards of visit to be sent to all the 
foreign ministers. One of them, on which was written, ' Le Comte 
du Nord et le Prince BariatinsJd,' \^z.^ brought to me. It was on 
Monday evening last. Being at court the next day I inquired of an 
old minister, my friend, what was the etiquette, and whether the 
Count received visits. The answer was, * Non ; on se fait ecrire ; 
voila tout.' This is done by passing the door, and ordering your 
name to be written on the porter's book. Accordingly, on Wednes- 
day I passed the house of Prince Bariatinski, Ambassador of Russia, 
where the Count lodged, and left my name on the list of each. I 
thought no more of the matter ; but this day. May the 24th, comes 
the servant who brought the card, in great affliction, saying he was 
like to be ruined by his mistake in bringing the cards here, and 
wishing to obtain from me some paper, of I know not what kind, for 
I did not see him. 

"In the afternoon came my friend, M. Le Roy, who is also a 
friend of the Prince's, telling me how much he, the Prince, was con- 
cerned at the accident, that both himself and the Count had great 
personal regard for me and my character, but that, our independence 
not yet being acknowledged by the court of Russia, it was impossible 
for him to permit himself to make me a visit as minister. I told M, 
Le Roy it was not my custom to seek such honours, though I was 
very sensible of them when conferred upon me ; that I should not 
have voluntarily intruded a visit, and that in this case, I had only 
done what 1 was informed the etiquette required of me ; but if it 
would be attended with any inconvenience to Prince Bariatinski, 
whom I much esteemed and respected, I thought the remedy was 
easy ; he had only to erase my name out of his books of visits 
received, and I would burn their card." 

As a comment upon this amusing piece of red- 
tapeism, Franklin says : 

" All the northern princes are not ashamed of a little civility com- 
mitted towards an American, The King of Denmark, travelling in 



1783] Play and Politics 297 

England under an assumed name, sent me a card, expressing in 
strong terms his esteem for me, and inviting me to dinner with him 
at St. James's. And the Ambassador from the King of Sweden 
lately asked me, whether I had powers to make a treaty of commerce 
with their kingdom, for, he said, his master was desirous of such a 
treaty with the United States, had directed him to ask me the ques- 
tion, and had charged him to tell me, that it would flatter him greatly 
to make it with a person whose character he so much esteemed, etc. 
Such compliments might make me a little proud, if we Americans 
were not naturally as much so already as the porter, who, being told 
he had with his burden jostled the great Czar, Peter, then in London, 
walking the street, ' Poh !' says he, ' we are all Czars here.' " * 

Had the philosopher found nothing more disagree- 
able than the vagueness of his position before the 
diplomatic world he would have considered himself 
a fortunate man. But it so happened that ere the 
signing of the preliminary articles of peace he was 
brought into a pa.^sive opposition to Messrs. Jay 
and Adams. Mr. Jay had a very positive and well- 
grounded suspicion that the Count de Vergennes 
was seeking to restrict the territory of the United 
States west of the Alleghanies, and to play into the 
hands of Spain at the expense of America ; Mr. 
Adams supported his colleague in this belief, and 
the doctor, very naturally, if not, perhaps, so saga- 
ciously as we might expect, continued to show faith 
in the disinterestedness of the French ministry. 
Mr. Jay was anxious to negotiate directly with 
Great Britain, without the co-operation of France, 
and contrary to the wish of Congress that the min- 
istry of Louis XVI. should be allowed to work in 
harmony with the commissioners. The situation 

* From the Journal of the Negotiations for Peace with Great 
Britain, 



298 Benjamin Franklin [1777- 

might have become more than embarrassing, but the 
doctor yielded the point ; the preHminary treaty of 
peace was negotiated directly with Great Britain ; 
Franklin was left to make apologies to the disgusted 
Vergennes, and to prevent the rising of discord be- 
tween France and the United States. Nothing 
better tested the sterling patriotism of Franklin 
than the wisdom of this concession. He would 
have treated France as an honoured ally, not as an 
object of suspicion, yet he realised the danger of 
delay, and rather than bring about a series of com- 
plications, he gracefully said " Yes " to Messrs. Jay 
and Adams, rendered noble assistance in drawing 
up the treaty which recognised the independence of 
his country, and sank in love of that country all 
personal feeling or predilection. That he was too 
charitable in his estimate of Gallic diplomacy les- 
sens not one whit the merit of this acquiescence, or 
the value of his services in the conferences preceding 
the settlement. 

The preliminary treaty between Great Britain and 
the United States (under the terms of which the 
sovereignty of the latter nation was conceded, the 
British troops within her territory ordered to be 
withdrawn, boundaries agreed upon, etc.) was 
signed on the 30th of November, 1782. It seemed 
now as if the cup of the "little postmaster's" felicity 
had been filled to the brim. Surely, Father Time 
had dealt leniently in allowing an erstwhile subject 
of Queen Anne to live under the rule of three suc- 
ceeding sovereigns, and finally to assist, as one of its 
inost honoured founders, in the erection of a co1q3- 



17S3] Play and Politics ^gg 

sal republic. But there was no chance to indulge 
in sentiment and ** spread-eagleism." Mr. Jay, 
Mr. Adams, and Henry Laurens, who was also 
acting as a peace commissioner, still left to their old 
colleague the duty of pacifying the Count de Ver- 
gennes. This difficult task he skilfully accomplished, 
after the exhibition of the expected hauteur on the 
part of the minister, and we find the envoy writing 
to the latter that " nothing has been agreed in the 
preliminaries contrary to the interests of France, and 
no peace is to take place between us and England, 
till you have concluded yours. Your observation 
is, however, apparently just, that, in not consulting 
you before they were signed, we have been guilty 
of neglecting a point of bienseance. But, as this 
was not from want of respect for the King, whom 
we all love and honour, we hope it will be excused, 
and that the great work, which has hitherto been 
so happily conducted, is so nearly brought to per- 
fection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not be 
ruined by a single indiscretion of ours." ** And 
certainly," said the veteran, " the whole edifice 
sinks to the ground immediately if you refuse on 
that account to give us any further assistance." 
The letter was a masterly combination of an apol- 
ogy and a request for money. It succeeded in both 
directions; M. de Vergennes was finally appeased, 
and the French Government loaned to the United 
States another sum of 6,000,000 francs — results 
which testified very plainly to the soothing talents 
of Franklin, and to the honour, even veneration, 
wherein he was held. Well might Jefferson say, 



300 Benjamin Franklin [1783 

when asked, some time later, if he had come to 
France to replace the doctor: '' No one can replace 
him, sir; I am only his successor." 

In the following January the preliminaries of a 
general peace between Great Britain, France, and 
Spain were signed at Versailles, Franklin being one 
of the joyful spectators of the scene; the beginning 
of September witnessed the sealing of the definitive 
treaty between England and the United States. 
The Revolution was, indeed, a thing of the past, 
and the envoy who had done so much to bring it to 
a successful issue began to long for Philadelphia, 
where he might ** enjoy the little left him of the 
evening of life in repose, and in the sweet society of 
his friends and family." He had obtained of glory 
more than enough. ** Could I have hoped at such 
an age, to have enjoyed such happiness ? " he cried 
to his friend, the Due de la Rochefoucauld. 






CHAPTER XII 

A RETROSPECT 

I 746- I 783 

E have had, of necessity, so much to 
do with the pubHc activities of Frank- 
lin, and have so often left placid 
Philadelphia to follow the fortunes 
of our hero in the old world, that the 
glimpses of his home life must seem few and far be- 
tween. We may be pardoned, therefore, in exercis- 
ing the prerogative of the historian by turning back, 
before farewells are said, to look for a moment at 
the philosopher as he appears in his own house. 
That is a view in which the average " great man " 
does not always figure to advantage, but with 
Franklin the more we peer into his establishment 
on Market Street the more distinct becomes his 
kindliness of heart and domesticity of disposition. 

One of the best pictures that we get of him in 
this beneficent light is furnished in the diary of 
Daniel Fisher,"^ a gentleman who came up to Fhila- 

* Extracts from this diary, contributed by Mrs. Conway Robinson 
Howard, may be found in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History 
and Biography, vol. xvii,, No. 3. 

301 



302 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

delphia from Williamsburg, Virginia, in the May of 
1755, in the hopes of winning fortune in the Quaker 
City. Mr. Fisher was armed with a letter of intro- 
duction to Chief-Justice Allen, a dignitary upon 
whom he made haste to call after he had quartered 
himself at the ** Indian King" tavern, " kept by 
one Mr. John Biddle, a very civil, courteous 
Quaker." Mr. Allen, as ill-luck had it, could or 
would do nothing for the Virginian, notwithstand- 
ing the presentation of the note from the Honour- 
able Mr. Nelson. The Chief Justice expressed his 
warm regard for the writer, but regretted that it 
was not in his power to help the visitor. 

" He advised me," says Fisher, " to look about myself, and if I 
found anyone inclined to employ me in any shape, on my applying 
to him, he would inform them of the character Mr. Nelson had given 
me. This, I own, was a reception I was not prepared for ; yet mor- 
tified and confounded as I was I begged he would reflect I was an 
utter stranger in the place, to which I observed he was sensible. I 
had travelled merely at the instance and advice of the Honble. Mr. 
Nelson, That I was now so destitute of acquaintance, that I did not 
know where, nor to whom to apply for a private lodging, for want of 
which advantage, I shall be obliged, both horse and myself, at a large 
expense, to continue at a public inn. But this instead of exciting in 
him any feeling of my distress or anxiety only increased his impatience 
to get rid of me, keeping me standing, and moving divers times 
towards the door, as if he apprehended that I did not know the way. 
However, at the third or fourth motion, I took the hint, walking out 
of the room into the passage, he very civilly keeping me company to 
the street door ; but before we parted, I entreated to know whether 
I might have the liberty of waiting on him again, when he had con- 
sidered my case, and 1 might have the happiness of finding him more 
at leisure. As to that, he said, he might generally be spoke with 
about nine in the morning." 

Fisher returned in a melancholy mood to his inn. 



1783] A Retrospect 3^3 

It seemed as if the Chief Justice had no idea of help- 
ing him, and repeated visits confirmed the correct- 
ness of this gloomy theory. 

" Thus circumstanced," continues the stranger, "in a kind of de- 
spair it entered my romantic head to communicate my unhappy con- 
dition to Mr, Franklin, a gentleman in good esteem here and well 
known to the Philosophical World. I without reserve laid the whole 
of my affairs before him, requesting his aid, if such a thing might be 
without inconvenience to himself. This in writing I sent to him 
June 4th, early in the morning. The same day I received a note by 
a servant under a wafer in these words : 

"'Mr. Franklin's compliments to Mr. Fisher and desires the 
favour of his Company to drink Tea at 5 o'clock this afternoon.' 

" I went at the time, and in my imagination met with a humane, 
kind reception. He expressed concern for my afflictions and prom- 
ised to assist me into some business provided it was in his power. In 
returning from Mr. Franklin's, a silversmith in the neighbourhood 
of Mr. Franklin, seeing me come out of that gentleman's house, 
spoke to me as I was passing his door and invited me to sit down." 

The name of the silversmith was Soumien; the 
result of the meeting was that in a few hours Mr. 
Fisher had installed himself as a lodger in the 
Soumien household, and was *' very well pleased " 
to observe that the family " seemed to be acquainted 
with Mr. Franklin's." So cordial, indeed, was the 
acquaintance that the very next afternoon Mrs. 
Franklin paid the Soumiens a visit, of which the 
diarist makes this curious entry : 

" As I was coming down from my chamber this afternoon a gen- 
tlewoman was sitting on one of the lowest stairs, which were but 
narrow, and there not being room enough to pass, she arose up and 
threw herself upon the floor and sat there. Mr. Soumien and his 
wife greatly entreated her to arise and take a chair, but in vain ; she 
would keep her seat, and kept it, I think, the longer for their en- 



304 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

treaty. This gentlewoman, whom, though I had seen before, I did 
not know, appeared to be Mrs. Franklin. She assumed the airs of 
extraordinary freedom and great humility, lamented heavily the mis- 
fortunes of those who are unhappily infected with a too tender or 
benevolent disposition, said she believed all the world claimed a 
privilege of troubling her Pappy (so she usually calls Mr. Franklin) 
with their calamities and distress, giving us a general history of 
many such wretches and their impertinent applications to him." 

It is evident that Mr. Fisher was not over-much 
impressed with Deborah Frankhn, among whose 
many virtues could be found neither poHsh nor breed- 
ing of the Vere de Vere type. Perhaps she, on her 
part, looked upon Fisher as an impecunious Virgin- 
ian who was giving her** Pappy " entirely too much 
trouble. But we quote again from the diary : 

" Thursday, the I2th (June). — This morning about nine Mr. 
Franklin sent for me to copy a pretty long letter from General 
Braddock, acknowledging the care of the Pennsylvanians in sending 
provisions, etc., to the forces, Mr. Franklin in particular, and com- 
plaining of the neglect of the governments of Virginia and Maryland 
especially, in speaking of which two colonies, he says : They had 
promised everything and had performed nothing ; and of the Penn- 
sylvanians, he said : They had promised nothing and had performed 
everything. . . . When I had finished several hasty copies for 
which the post then waited, he desired I would breakfast with him 
the next morning and he would then give me more work. 

"June 13 and 14. — I was closely employed on several copies of a 
manuscript treatise entitled, ' Observations Concerning the Increase 
of Mankind, Peopling of Countrys, Etc' 

" P'rom June 16 to July 10: employed generally in writing or 
sorting of papers at the printing office. I should observe that on 
St. John the Baptist Day (June 24), there was the greatest procession 
of Free Masons to the church and their Lodge, in Second Street, 
that was ever seen in America. iVo less than 160 being in the pro- 
cession in gloves, aprons, etc., attended by a band of music. Mr. 
Allin, the Grand Master, honouring them with his company, as did 



17S3] A Retrospect 305 

the Deputy Grand Master, Mr. Benjamin Franklin and his son, Mr. 
William Franklin, who walked as the next Chief Officer. A sword 
bearer with a naked sword drawn headed the procession. They 
dined together elegantly, as it is said at their hall upon Turtle, etc. 
[Poor Fisher ! The thought of turtle — Turtle with a capital T as he 
spells it — must have gone to his hungry soul.] 

" Friday, July i8. — This afternoon about three o'clock we were 
terribly alarmed by an express by way of Maryland from Colonel 
Innis, dated at Mill's Creek or Fort Cumberland, July ii, giving an 
account that the forces under General Braddock were entirely de- 
feated by the French. . . . Having as yet made no settled 
agreement with Mr. Franklin, I was not certain that he had any real 
occasion for my services, having several days together nothing for 
me to do." 

At this juncture Mr. Fisher met one Captain 
Coultas, a " person of sense and character," and 
learned that in case the said captain was selected 
Sheriff of Philadelphia, he (Fisher) might expect 
employment. The diary continues: 

" Extremely pleased with the humanely rational generosity of this 
sensible man, I immediately flew to my friend, Mr. Franklin, with 
the news, that he might participate in my satisfaction, but was some- 
what surprised that he did not consider what I had done in the same 
view with myself. He allowed Captain Coultas was a very worthy 
man, and would sincerely perform everything I was encouraged to 
expect or hope for, but could not apprehend that anything he could 
do for me would be worthy my acceptance ; that he had himself 
thought of several ways of serving me, and has rejected them only 
because he esteemed them too mean. Particularly, he said, he could 
immediately put me into the Academy, in the capacity of English 
School Master, a place of ;^6o a year, with some other advantages, 
but refrained mentioning it to me in hopes of having it soon in his 
power of doing better for me. I assured him with the utmost grati- 
tude, the employ did not appear in so mean a light to me ; and the 
only reason I had for declining the favour, was the diffidence of my 
ability in doing justice to his recommendations, a thing which he 
said, he was not in the least apprehension of. However, presuming 



3o6 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

it gave him no offence, I craved his leave to decline the kind offer, 
and he declared himself very well satisfied. Having informed him 
that I should prefer serving him as a clerk provided he had any occa- 
sion for me, on Monday morning, July 28th, I received the following 
letter from him : 

" ' Monday morning, July 28. — Sir — Till our new building is fin- 
ished, which I hope will be in two or three weeks, I have no room 
to accommodate a clerk. But it is my intention to have one, though 
my business is so small that I cannot afford to give more than I have 
always given, Viz. Diet at my own Table, with Lodging and Wash- 
ing and;i^25 per Annum. I could never think this worth offering to 
you but if you think fit to accept it, till something better shall fall in 
the way, you shall be very welcome to &c. B. Franklin.' 

" ' P. S. — It may commence from the time you first began to write 
for me, in which case I discharge your Board, etc., at Mr. Soumien's, 
or from the present time, and then I pay you for the writing done, 
or if you chuse it, 1 will get you into the charity school, as I men- 
tioned before.' " 

This was gracious and benevolent treatment of a 
man who had come to Franklin without the slightest 
claim upon his generosity, barring despair and a 
** romantic head." Mr. Fisher tells us that he 
quickly accepted the tendered clerkship, and then 
describes a peculiar condition of affairs in the Frank- 
lin household anent the status therein of Mr. William 
Franklin, the future Governor of New Jersey: 

" Mr. Soumien had often informed me of great uneasiness and dis- 
satisfaction in Mr. Franklin's family in a manner no way pleasing to 
me and which in truth I was unwilling to credit, but as Mrs. Frank- 
lin and I, of late, began to be friendly and sociable, I discerned too 
great grounds for Mr. Soumien's reflections, arising solely from tur- 
bulence and jealousy and pride of her disposition. She suspecting 
Mr. Franklin for having too great an esteem for his son in prejudice 
of herself and daughter, a young woman of about 12 or 13 years of 
age, for whom it was visible Mr. Franklin had no less esteem than 
for his son. Young Mr. Franklin, I have often seen pass to and 



1783] A Retrospect 307 

from his father's apartment upon business (for he does not eat, drink, 
or sleep in the house), without least compliment between Mr. Frank- 
lin and him or any sort of notice taken of each other, till one day I 
was sitting with her in the passage when the young gentleman came 
by, she exclaimed to me (he not hearing) : 

" ' Mr. Fisher, there goes the greatest Villain upon Earth.' 
" This greatly confounded and perplexed me, but did not hinder 
her from pursuing her invectives in the foulest terms I ever heard 
from a gentlewoman. What to say or do I could not tell, till luckily 
a neighbour of her acquaintance coming in I made my escape. I 
ever after industriously avoided being alone with her and she ap- 
peared no less cunning in seeking opportunities of beginning the sub- 
ject again, in so much that I foresaw a very unpromising situation. 
The respect due this young man, which his father always paid him 
and which I was determined he should receive from me, would not, 
I perceived clearly, be endured by a woman of her violent spirit, and 
I began to wish my engagement had been with Captain Coultas." 

Evidently Mr. Fisher was not a philosopher. 
Fortunately for his peace of mind he now received 
news which seemed to promise him a more prosper- 
ous career should he return to Virginia. 

"The uncertainty of my situation, my apprehensions of Mrs. 
Franklin's turbulent temper, together with reflecting upon what 
might be the consequence of General Braddock's defeat, brought me 
to a resolution of seeing my family and Mr. Walthoe at Williamsburg 
before I came to any certain determination of a settlement ; yet I 
showed Mr. Franklin my letter, and craved his opinion, who very 
readily came into mine, assuring me that he would wait a considerable 
space for the result of our conferences before he supplied himself 
with a clerk or the school with a master. So I fixed upon Sunday 
the loth for setting out on my journey to Williamsburg. Being not 
determined which road I should take (there being several) Mr. Frank- 
lin said if I went the Upper he would get me to take an order for a 
small matter of money on Mr. Mercer in Virginia, with whom he 
had had no settlement for nine years, upon which I told him I did 
not regard a few miles of riding to serve him and he might depend 
upon my making Mr. Mercer's in my way. He gave me also six 



3o8 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

pistoles, asking if that was sufficient for the trouble he had given me. 
I told him it was. The evening (Saturday) before I set out, I was 
with him till after ii o'clock, when he pressed me to accept ten 
guineas more, which I refused, and I said that in case of accident 
from my horse failing or any other misfortune I had a gold watch in 
my pocket which would give me some credit. It was very near 
twelve when we parted with mutual good wishes," 

At five the next morning Fisher set out for Wil- 
Hamsburg, leaving behind him the pretty lanes of 
Philadelphia and the hospitality of its chief citizen. 

Here was a diary written for private rather than 
public use, and the impressions which it records are 
frank and unconstrained. How much the more pleas- 
ant, therefore, is the insight it gives us into the 
helpfulness of Franklin ! If the portrait of Deborah 
be uncomplimentary, it is not to be forgotten, never- 
theless, that as time wore on the relations between 
the good lady and her step-son became far more 
cordial. When she died she was at peace with 
William Franklin, and he, in turn, had not neglected 
to pay her all necessary respect and attention. The 
" turbulent temper" had softened with the years. 
It was better that Mrs. Franklin did not live to see 
the son turn Tory. She might have returned to 
her earlier way of thinking. 

Barring the little frictions inevitable in almost any 
household, there must have been much to charm in 
the home life of the doctor and his wife. Through- 
out all the views thereof it is curious to see how 
essentially domestic was the philosopher in his 
tastes, and how different he appeared from a certain 
type of public man who is never so bored as when 
removed from the eyes of the world, or of the town. 



1783] A Retrospect 309 

Had Franklin spent all his years in Philadelphia, 
in the enjoyment of a moderate income and enough 
leisure to read and pursue his scientific investigations, 
he would have been quite as happy as the better- 
known Franklin — colonial agent in London, Signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, Envoy to 
France, President of Pennsylvania, et ccetera, et ccet- 
era. There was nothing about the house too small for 
his observation ; there was no petty detail in which 
he could not take an interest. Even the quality of 
food, the shape of a coffee-cup, or the decoration of 
a room, not to speak of such important things as the 
education of his daughter or the dresses of his wife, 
were of consequence to the man who helped to lead 
national thought, oppose a national enemy, and 
establish a republic. His was a mind of wondrous 
receptivity. 

So great, indeed, was this love of home and home- 
gods that no amount of foreign distraction could de- 
prive him of it. He might go to England on affairs 
of state, but the house in Philadelphia was never 
forgotten. 

*' I send you by Captain Budden," we find him writing from Lon- 
don to Mrs, Franklin, " a large case, and a small box. In the large 
case is another small box, containing some English china ; viz. melons 
and leaves for a desert of fruit and cream, or the like ; a bowl re- 
markable for the neatness of the figures, made at Bow, near this city ; 
some coffee cups of the same ; a Worcester bowl, ordinary. To 
show the difference of workmanship there is something from all the 
china works in England ; and one old true china bason mended, of 
an odd colour. The same box contains four silver salt ladles, newest, 
but ugliest, fashion ; a little instrument to core apples ; another to 
make little turnips out of great ones. . . . Also seven yards of 
printed cotton, blue ground, to make you a gown. I bought it by 



3IO Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

candle-light, and liked it there, but not so well afterwards. If you 
do not fancy it, send it as a present from me to Sister Jenny. There 
is a better gown for you, of flowered tissue, sixteen yards, of Mrs. 
Stevenson's fancy, cost nine guineas ; and I think it a great beauty. 
There was no more of the sort, or you should have had enough for a 
negligee or suit." 

It is evident that buried in Franklin's heart was 
the feeling that perhaps, in the matter of choosing 
gowns, he was, after all, quite as hopeless as any 
other specimen of benighted man, and that the taste 
of his landlady, Mrs. Stevenson, could be relied upon 
more successfully. What joy the " large case " 
must have given the family in Philadelphia! The 
doctor goes on, in his letter, to enumerate with a 
minuteness almost feminine the various articles the 
box contained — snuffers, music for Sally, two sets 
of books, and much else that will surely bring forth 
enthusiasm. And he says : 

" Sally's last letter to her brother is the best wrote that of late I 
have seen of hers. I only wish she was a little more careful of her 
spelling. I hope she continues to love going to church, and would 
have her read over and over again the Whole Duty of Matt and the 
Lady's Library. Look at the figures on the china bowl and coffee 
cups, with your spectacles on ; they will bear examining. I have 
made your compliments to Mrs. Stevenson. She is indeed very 
obliging, takes great care of my health, and is very diligent when I 
am any way indisposed ; but yet I have a thousand times wished you 
with me, and my little Sally with her ready hands and feet to do, 
and go, and come, and get what I wanted. There is a great differ- 
ence in sickness between being nursed with that tender attention, 
which proceeds from sincere love ; and " 

How the pretty comparison was to end must be 
left to the imagination, for the conclusion of the let- 
ter is long since lost. There is enough of the com- 



1783] A Retrospect 311 

parison to show that in his love of home PVankHn 
strove vaHantly to atone for those errata of an 
irregular youth.* 

When the beloved Sally was engaged to Richard 
Bache (whom she married in October, 1767), the 
father, then on another visit to England, wrote to 
Mrs. Franklin a characteristic epistle wherein pater- 
nal solicitude and domestic economy have amusing 
combination. He must leave it to his wife's judg- 
ment, he says, to act ** as shall seem best " in the 
proposed match. 

" If you think it a suitable one, I suppose the sooner it is completed 
the better. In that case I would advise, that you do not make an 
expensive feasting wedding, but conduct everything with frugality 
and economy, which our circumstances now require to Vjc observed in 
all our expenses. For, since my partnership with Mr. Hall is expired, 
a great source of our income is cut off ; and, if I should lose the post- 
office, which, among many changes here, is far from being unlikely, 
we should be reduced to our rents and interest of money for a sub- 
sistence, which will by no means afford the chargeable housekeeping 
and entertainments we have been used to. For my own part, I live 
here as frugally as possible not to be destitute of the comforts of life, 
making no dinners for anybody and contenting myself with a single 
dish when I dine at home ; and yet such is the dearness of living here 
in every article, that my expenses amaze me." 

Then the prudent Franklin goes on to assure 
Deborah that Mr. Bache must not expect too much 
from his parents-in-law. 

" I hope his expectations are not great of any fortune to be had 
with our daughter before our death. I can only say, that, if he 
proves a good husband to her and a good son to me, he shall find me 
as good a father as I can be ; but at present, I suppose you would 



* This letter was written February 19, 1758. 



312 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

agree with me, that we cannot do more than fit her out handsomely in 
clothes and furniture, not exceeding in the whole five hundred pounds 
of value. For the rest, they must depend, as you and I did, on their 
own industry and care, as what remains in our hands will be barely 
sufficient for our support, and not enough for them when it comes to 
be divided at our decease." 

For Sarah the doctor always had the greatest 
fondness; no rush of public business, no absence 
from America, could abate a jot of his affection. Yet 
he could find fault with her, as with others, and it 
is quaint enough to see him chiding her, in a letter 
from France, for a seemingly extravagant order 
which she had sent abroad : 

" When I began to read your account of the high prices of goods, 
' a pair of gloves seven dollars, a yard of common gauze twenty-four 
dollars and that it now required a fortune to maintain a family in a 
very plain way' [Mrs. Bache had been quoting Philadelphia revolu- 
tionary prices to her dear papa], I expected you would conclude by 
telling me that everybody, as well as yourself, was grown frugal and 
industrious ; and I could scarce believe my eyes in reading forward, 
that ' there never was so much pleasure and dressing going on ' ; and 
that you yourself wanted black pins and feathers from France, to 
appear, I suppose, in the mode ! . . . The war, indeed, may in 
some degree raise the prices of goods, and the high taxes which are 
necessary to support the war, may make our frugality necessary ; and, 
as I am always preaching that doctrine, I cannot in conscience or in 
decency encourage the contrary by my example, in furnishing my 
children with foolish modes and luxuries. I therefore send all the 
articles you desire, that are useful and necessary, and omit the rest." 

Such fatherly caution must have been a blow to 
poor Mrs. Bache. Even the sternest example of 
unornamental man will admit, that she who expects 
a consignment of feathers and other trifles from 
PariSy and receives only " useful and necessary " 



1783] A Retrospect 313 

things, is pretty sure to view the world through 
darkened glasses for at least twenty-four unpleasant 
hours. And who so stoic, even though she be the 
daughter of a philosopher, as to read with equa- 
nimity a succeeding clause in this letter ? "If you 
wear your cambric ruffles as I do, and take care not 
to mend the holes, they will come in time to be lace ; 
and feathers, my dear girl, may be had in America 
from every cock's tail." This was unkind unto the 
verge of sarcasm. 

" How could my dear papa give me so severe a reprimand," Mrs. 
Bache wrote back to her father, "for wishing a little finery. He 
would not, I am sure, if he knew how much I have felt it. Last 
winter (in consequence of the surrender of General Burgoyne), was a 
season of triumph to the Whigs, and they spent it gaily ; you would 
not have had me, I am sure, stay away from the Embassador's or 
Gerard's entertainments, nor when I was invited to spend a day with 
General Washington and his lady ; and you would have been the last 
person, I am sure, to have wished to see me dressed with singularity. 
Though I never loved dress so much as to wish to be particularly fine, 
yet I never will go out when I cannot appear so as to do credit to my 
family and husband. The Assembly we went to, as Mr, Bache was 
particularly chosen to regulate them ; the subscription was fifteen 
pounds ; but to a subscription ball of which there were numbers, we 
never went to one, though always asked. I can assure my dear papa 
that industry in this house is by no means laid aside ; but as to spin- 
ning linnen, we cannot think of that till we have got that wove which 
we spun three years ago." 

If Franklin could resist this bit of feminine argu- 
ment, he was less susceptible to family affection 
than we are warranted in thinking. No one knew 
better than he — his simplicity nevertheless and not- 
withstanding — the value which the world attached 
to appearances. He was neither ostentatious nor a 



3H Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

seeker after social position, but he was quite willing 
that his family should take a prominent part in the 
life about them, and that Mrs. Bache should make 
a pretty figure at an " Assembly," which was then, 
as now, the gathering-ground of Philadelphia's 

Four Hundred." 

But behold, after starting out to trace the home 
ties of our hero, we have wandered off with him as 
far away as France. That, perhaps, is pardonable. 
If we retrace our steps and look into the Market 
Street house, in the old days of his editorial energy, 
Franklin may often be found absorbed in those 
electrical researches which contributed so magnifi- 
cently to his fame. It was during a visit to Boston, 
in 1746, that this still unexplored department of 
science was first brought to his attention, through 
some experiments imperfectly performed by Dr. 
Spence. The whole subject presented a new field 
to Franklin, and the tests, poor as they were, filled 
him with pleasure and ideas. 

" Soon after my return to Philadelphia," as he tells us in the Auto- 
biography, " our library company received from Mr. P. Collinson, 
Fellow of the Royal Society of London, a present of a glass tube, 
with some account of the use of it in making such experiments. I 
eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at Bos- 
ton ; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness in performing 
those, also, which we had an account of from England, adding a 
number of new ones, I say much practice, for my house was con- 
tinually full, for some time, with people who came to see these new 
wonders." 

This rush of the curious promised to be incon- 
venient, and Franklin, ever fertile of expedient, be- 
thought himself of a remedy. 




FRANKLIN'S ELECTRICAL MACHINE. 

OWNED BY THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA, 



1783] A Retrospect 315 

" To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, I caused 
a number of similar tubes to be blown at our glass-house, with which 
they furnished themselves, so that we had at length several perform- 
ers. Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious 
neighbour, who, being out of business, I encouraged to undertake 
showing the experiments for money, and drew up for him two lec- 
tures, in which the experiments were ranged in such order, and ac- 
companied with such explanations in such method, as that the 
foregoing should assist in comprehending the following. He pro- 
cured an elegant apparatus for the purpose, in which all the little 
machines that I had roughly made for myself were nicely formed by 
instrument makers. His lectures were well attended, and gave great 
satisfaction ; and after some time he went thro' the colonies, exhibit- 
ing them in every capital town, and picked up some money." 

Philadelphia, it seems, almost lost her sedate 
head in astonishment at the mysterious manifesta- 
tions. 

Franklin wrote to Mr. CoUinson the accounts of 
these experiments, but the Royal Society, before 
which the letters were read, did not even deem them 
worth printing in its transactions. As for one paper, 
in which the Philadelphian had the temerity to sug- 
gest " the sameness of lightning with electricity " — 
well, so *' absurd " a theory was actually laughed at 
by the English scientists ! A copy of the papers 
was, however, translated into French and printed 
in Paris with surprising results. 

"The publication offended the Abbe Nollet, preceptor in natural 
philosophy to the royal family and an able experimenter, who had 
formed and published a theory of electricity, which then had the 
general vogue. He could not at first believe that such a work came 
from America, and said it must have been fabricated by his enemies 
at Paris, to decry his system. Afterwards, having been assured that 
there really existed such a person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which 
he had doubted, he wrote and published a volume of Letters, chiefly 



1 6 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 



addressed to me, defending his theory, and denying the verity of my 
experiments, and of the positions deduced from them." 

The doctor did not answer the Abb^ — ** and the 
event gave me no cause to repent my silence; for 
my friend, M. le Roy, of the Royal Academy of 
Sciences, took up my cause and refuted him ; my 
book was translated into the Italian, German, and 
Latin languages ; and the doctrine it contained was 
by degrees universally adopted by the philosophers 
of Europe, in preference to that of the Abbe; so 
that he lived to see himself the last of his sect, ex- 
cept Monsieur B of Paris, his eleve and imme- 
diate disciple." 

" What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity," 
continues the pleased scientist, "was the success of one of its pro- 
posed experiments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, 
for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged the public 
attention everywhere. M. de Lor, who had an apparatus for experi- 
mental philosophy, and lectured in that branch of science, undertook 
to repeat what he called ihQ Philadelphia Experifnents ; and, after 
they were performed before the King and court, all the curious of 
Paris flocked to see them." 

And the writer modestly adds : 

" I will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital 
experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I received in the success of a 
similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are 
to be found in the histories of electricity." 

This experiment of the kite, by which Franklin 
gave practical illustration to his discovery of the 
identity of lightning with the electric fluid, must be 
as familiar to the average schoolboy as is the multi- 



1783] A Retrospect 317 

plication table. The episode has been as much im- 
mortalised as the story of the George Washington 
hatchet, and has the advantage, unlike the latter 
classic, of being absolute fact. Yet when Franklin, 
accompanied by his son, went out into the field — a 
field which now forms one of the busiest and noisiest 
districts of Philadelphia — and took with him the 
silken kite, the famous key, and the Leyden jar, he 
was doing something more than furnishing an anec- 
dote for children or literature for primers. It was 
posterity at large that was to thank him ; when he 
brought down the electric message from the clouds 
he vindicated a mighty thought, and incidentally 
put in his debt all the coming generations. 

It was in 1752 that the kite played its important 
part, but before that Franklin had astonished the 
philosophical world by a wonderful treatise which 
he styled laboriously, " Opinions and Conjectures 
concerning the Properties and Effects of the electri- 
cal Matter, and the Means of preserving Buildings, 
ships, etc., from Lightning, arising from Experiments 
and Observations made at Philadelphia, 1749." In 
this paper he suggested the famous plan of placing 
on a high tower or steeple a sort of sentry-box, 
" big enough to contain a man and an electric 
stand," and from the middle of which stand an iron 
rod, pointed very sharp at the end, was to pass out 
through the door. Here was the doctor's idea of 
drawing off the fluid through the power of points, 
by the lightning-rod, for he asks in the same article 
whether the knowledge of this power may not be of 
use to mankind *' in preserving houses, churches, 



3i8 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning, by direct- 
ing us to fix, on the highest parts of those edifices, 
upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle, and 
gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of those 
rods, a wire down the outside of the building into 
the ground, or down round the shrouds of a ship, 
and down her side till it reaches the water. " No 
wonder that the purveyor of lightning-rods had 
cause to bless Franklin. 

As the Philadelphian worked away at his beloved 
experiments, giving and receiving shocks, meeting 
more than once with a dangerous accident, using 
the new knowledge as a spur to his inventive genius, 
and elaborating his hypotheses and conclusions, he 
waited patiently for recognition in conservative 
England. It came at last, although not soon 
enough to take away from France the credit of 
having first made widely known the most daring 
scientist of the age. 

"Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris" — we quote 
from the Autobiography — " wrote to a friend, who was of the Royal 
Society, an account of the high esteem my experiments were in among 
the learned abroad, and of their wonder that my writings had been so 
little noticed in England. The Society, on this, resumed the con- 
sideration of the letters that had been read to them, and the celebrated 
Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them, and of all I had 
afterwards sent to England on the subject, which he accompanied 
with some praise of the writer. This summary was then printed in 
their transactions ; and some members of the Society in London, par- 
ticularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, having verified the experi- 
ment of procuring lightning from the clouds by a pointed rod, and 
acquainting them with the success, they soon made me more than 
amends for the slight with which they had before treated me. With- 
out my having made any application for that honour, they chose me 
a member, and voted that I should be excused the customary pay- 



i^s3i A Retrospect 319 

ments, which would have amounted to twenty-five guineas ; and ever 
since have given me their transactions gratis." 

In 1753 Franklin had won the Copley gold medal, 
and in making the award the Earl of Macclesfield, 
then President of the Royal Society, was pleased to 
say some flattering things of the savant of the back- 
woods, and to graciously remark that " though some 
others might have begun to entertain suspicions of 
an analogy between the effects of lightning and 
electricity, yet he took Mr. Franklin to be the first, 
who, among other curious discoveries, undertook to 
show from experiments that the former owed its 
origin entirely to the latter." "^ It was recognition 
like this which put the seal of English approval upon 
the philosopher's researches, and aided indirectly, 
by establishing his fame, to increase his political in- 
fluence and sphere of patriotic usefulness. When 
he went to England to fight the Penns he was some- 
thing more than " B. Franklin, agent " — he was a 
man whose name, written in letters of electric fire, 
could never die. 

Nor does it appear strange, when we take into 
consideration the character of Franklin, that these 
electrical studies formed but a part of his contribu- 
tions to the domain of science and invention. His 
fund of ingenuity and diversity of theme were phe- 
nomenal. Navigation, the building of ships, the 
consumption of smoke, the paving and cleaning of 
streets, ventilation, agriculture, the temperature of 
the Gulf Stream, the origin of storms, and the treat- 

* In April, 1756, Franklin was further honoured by the Royal 
Society, which elected him one of its Fellows. 



320 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

ment of colds — upon all these subjects, not to speak 
of others, his mind found an occupation for which 
succeeding generations of his countrymen have been, 
or should have been, deeply grateful. He made the 
Armonica,* he brought his genius into the region of 
fire and chimneys, and he invented the " Franklin 
stove. ' ' Of the latter device he published a descrip- 
tion — '* An Account of the new-invented Pennsyl- 
vania Fireplaces," etc. A cleanly printed copy of 
the pamphlet is now before me, and a reading of it 
shows in how thoroughly practical a manner the 
creator of this stove went into the business of dis- 
crediting the old-fashioned and more picturesque 
fireplace, or ** strong drawing chimneys," of the 
day. The eye falls at random on his quotation of a 
Spanish proverb : 



* In London he saw for the fi^rst time an instrument consisting of 
musical glasses, upon which tunes were played by passing a wet finger 
around their brims. He was charmed with the sweetness of its tones ; 
but the instrument itself seemed to him an imperfect contrivance, 
occupying much space and limited in the number of its tones. The 
glasses were arranged on a table, and tuned by putting water into 
them till they gave the notes required. After many trials he suc- 
ceeded in constructing an instrument of a different form, more com- 
modious, and more extended in the compass of its notes. His glasses 
were made in the shape of a hemisphere, with an open neck or socket 
in the middle, for the purpose of being fixed, on an iron spindle. 
They were then arranged one after another, on this spindle, the 
largest at one end and gradually diminishing in size to the smallest 
at the other end. The tones depended on the size of the glasses. 
The spindle, willi its series of glasses, was fixed horizontally in a 
case, and turned by a wheel attached to its larger end, upon the prin- 
ciple of a common spinning-wheel. The performer sat in front of the 
instrument, and the tones were brought out by applying a wet finger 
to the exterior surface of the glasses as they turned round. — Sparks. 




THE PENNSYLVANIA FIRE-PLACE. 



-Profile of Franklin's invention, showing (M) mantlepiece, (C) funnel, (B) false 

back, (E)true back, (T) top of fire-place, (F) front, (A)_fire, (D) 

air box, (K) hole in side plate, (I, H, G) fresh-air 

hollow, (P) passage under false back. 



1783] A Retrospect 321 

" If the wind blows on you through a hole, 
Make your will, and take care of your soul" 

— a gloomy couplet, of which Franklin hastens to 
observe : 

"Women particularly, from this cause, as they sit much in the 
house, get colds in the head, rheums, and defluctions, which fall into 
their jaws and gums, and have destroyed early many a fine set of 
teeth in these northern colonies. Great and bright fires do also very 
much contribute to damage the eyes, dry and shrivel the skin, and 
bring on early the appearances of old age." 

That was a threat calculated to make every femi- 
nine reader of the ** Account " a ready convert to 
the ** Franklin stove." Diplomatic inventor! 

This stove was a free-will offering to the public ; 
there was no fortune in it for Franklin. Governor 
Thomas offered to give him a patent upon the de- 
vice, but the temptation was resisted upon the prin- 
ciple that, " as we enjoy great advantages from the 
inventions of others, we should be glad of an oppor- 
tunity to serve others by inventions of ours; and 
this we should do freely and generously " — a very 
worthy motive now more honoured in the breach 
than in the observance. The inventor would, in- 
deed, have proved a poor client for a patent lawyer, 
for he says : 

" An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a good deal of my 
pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small 
changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operation, got a patent 
for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this 
is not the only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by 
others, tho' not always with the same success, which I never con- 
tested, as having no desire of profiting by patents myself, and hating 
disputes." 



322 Benjamin Franklin [1746- 

Such was Franklin, with the comprehensiveness of 
a Galileo and the practical qualities, let us say, of an 
Edison. Soaring one moment in the clouds of theo- 
ry, and snatching a grand truth from the thunder- 
storm ; the next moment teaching the Americans 
how to warm themselves. In both moods he suc- 
ceeded ; he became the greatest utilitarian of the 
age. " Whether in directing the construction of 
chimneys or of constitutions, lecturing on the saving 
of candles or on the economy of national revenues, 
he was still intent on the same end, the question 
always being how to obtain the most of solid tangi- 
ble advantage by the plainest and easiest means." ^ 
To prove useful became to him a business. 

In Franklin's writings we see the same great idea; 
he wrote for a purpose. If we except a very few of 
his contributions, there is always a motive, and a 
practical one, lurking beneath the surface, and it is 
for this reason that the pen was to him a means 
rather than an end. With the furbelows of liter- 
ature he bothered himself but little, although he 
could be graceful and Addisonian enough when he 
chose ; to pose as an author or man of letters was 
far from his thoughts. Thus his style is generally 
clear, lucid, direct, rather than elegant; the reader 
gets at once at the writer's idea without becoming 
distracted by beauty of metaphor, by originality of 
expression, or by the thousand and one things which 
distinguish the professional book-maker from the 
lay writer. It is none the less true that some of 
Franklin's papers bid fair to survive as long as there 

*John Foster 



1783] A Retrospect 323 

is an English literature ; that many of them afford 
as much interest to-day as they did a century ago or 
more, and that they have already outlived the 
achievements of numberless ambitious authors whose 
fame has sunk into the limbo of oblivion. When 
the philosopher wrote he had something to say, and 
he said it in good, well-chosen English ; he never 
soared above the public intelligence; he knew just 
when to be witty and when grave ; and he was able 
to get from his readers the greatest possible atten- 
tion with a minimum of effort on their part. That, 
in brief, is the secret of Franklin's success in the 
empire of letters. Essayists, reformers, and states- 
men who wish to hold the popular ear should study 
his methods. 

An attempt has been made in this volume, by per- 
tinent quotations, to give a glimpse of the doctor's 
style and scope of subject, but to obtain a compre- 
hensive knowledge of the latter it is necessary to 
spend some hours in a judicious perusal of his col- 
lected works. The task always repays those who 
undertake it; they find it an entertainment, and in- 
stead of leaving the pages with the sense of having 
delved into old-fashioned pomposity, they come 
away refreshed and amused. Let the novice read 
every line of the imperishable Autobiography, glide 
almost haphazard through the great mass of corre- 
spondence, and then take two or three of the Busy- 
body papers, the Necessary Hints to those that ivould 
be Rieh, the Way to Wealth, the Dialogue betiveen 
XyY and Z, Cool Thoughts, \\\^ Examination before 
the House of Commons, the Rules for Reducing a 



324 



Benjamin Franklin 



[1783 



Great Empire to a Small One, and the Bagatelles. 
Having done this he has acquired a deHghtful, if not 
exactly a profound, impression of Franklin's writ- 
ings, and if he does not soon return to the occupa- 
tion, with a thirst for more letters and more essays, 
it will be his fault or misfortune rather than that of 
the doctor. Franklin wrote for the comprehension 
of all men; they who run may read him, and need 
not tarry by the way to organise societies wherewith 
to ferret out his meanings. 





CHAPTER XIII 

FINAL DAYS 
I 784- 1 790 




AVING done such yeoman's service in 
the establishment of peace, Frank- 
Un's thoughts turned again towards 
the home wherein he might await, 
in semi-comfort of body and com- 
plete tranquillity of mind, the approach of that Grim 
Visitor who had so considerately allowed him to ex- 
ceed the three score and ten of existence. He felt 
tired and feeble. But Congress still refused to re- 
call the envoy, and his stay in France assumed such 
a length that he began to fear that he would not 
have left enough of health to make the tossing jour- 
ney to America. Still, life at Passy was very 
charming; friends increased as the months glided 
on, and the atmosphere breathed good-will and re- 
conciliation. " It is a sweet word," the philosopher 
had said of that self-same reconciliation. Possibly 
the truism came home to him when William Frank- 
lin, ex-American and at present in London as a 
protege of the British Government, wrote to his 

325 



326 Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

father, in the summer of 1784, with dutiful tenders 
of affection. The doctor never forgot the poHtical 
apostasy of his son,^ but he was ready to forgive; 
and so he repHed that he would be glad to revive 
the old ties. 

" It will be veiy agreeable to me ; indeed, nothing has ever hurt 
me so much, and affected me with such keen sensations, as to find 
myself deserted in my old age by my only son ; and not only deserted, 
but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause, wherein my 
good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake. You conceived, you 
say, that your duty to your King and regard for your country required 
this. I ought not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in 
public affairs. We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are 
not in our own power ; they are formed and governed much by cir- 
cumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible. 
Your situation was such that few would have censured your remaining 
neuter, though there are natural duties which precede political ones, 
and cannot be extinguished by them. This is a disagreeable subject. 
I drop it ; and we will endeavour, as you propose, mutually to forget 
what has happened relating to it, as well as we can. I send your son 



* Franklin showed, in the following clause of his will, that he did 
not indulge in the luxury of forgetfulness. " To my son, IVilliam 
FranJdin, late Governor of the Jerseys, I give and devise all the lands 
I hold or have a right to, in the Province of Nova .Scotia, to hold to 
him, his heirs and assigns forever. I also give to him all my books and 
papers, which he has in his possession, and all debts standing against 
him on my account books, willing that no payment for, nor restitution 
of, the same be required of him by my executors. The part he acted 
against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account 
for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavoured to deprive 
me of." William Franklin was rewarded for his Toryism by a pen- 
sion from the British Government. He spent the latter part of his 
life in England, and lived to be eighty-two years old. The son, 
William Temple Franklin, went to England after the death of Ben- 
jamin Franklin ; he subsequently edited, and poorly, the works of the 
latter (he tampered with the wording of \)ci^ Autobiography) ^ and died 
at Paris in 1823, 



1790] Final Days z^^ 

[William Temple Franklin] over to pay his duty to you. You will 
find him much improved." 

In the same letter Franklin says: 

"I did intend returning this year; but the Congress, instead of 
giving me leave to do so, have sent me another commission, which will 
keep me here at least a year longer, and perhaps I may then be too 
old and feeble to bear the voyage. I am here among a people that 
love and respect me, a most amiable nation to live with ; and perhaps 
I may conclude to die among them ; for my friends in America are 
dying off, one after another, and I have been so long abroad that I 
should now be almost a stranger in my own country." 

For all this talk as to dying in France, Franklin 
really wished to die at home. Thrice had he asked 
Congress for permission to return, yet it was not 
until March, 1785, that the long-desired consent was 
reluctantly given, and that Thomas Jefferson was 
appointed to succeed him. Jefferson had been in 
France for some months, to assist in making com- 
mercial treaties with the European governments, 
and it remained for the doctor, ere his departure, to 
conclude a compact with Prussia which Washington 
considered to be the most liberal treaty ever agreed 
upon between independent nations. Early in May 
the retiring minister wrote to his friend, the Count 
de Vergennes, explaining that his ill-health would 
not permit him to go to Versailles for farewell, set- 
ting forth his appreciation of the goodness of his 
Majesty and the favours of De Vergennes, and 
praying that *' God may shower down his blessings 
on the King, the Queen, their children, and all the 
royal family to the latest generations." Little did 
the writer, he who had seen so much of the sunshine 



328 Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

of France and so little of its gathering clouds, im- 
agine that the path of Louis XVI. and Marie An- 
toinette led to the guillotine. But those tragedies 
had not come as yet; the King could still dispense 
graciousness. He sent to the republican a portrait 
of the royal features, set with over four hundred 
diamonds, while M. de Vergennes wrote a pretty 
letter of good-bye. The passing of the philosopher 
seemed a national incident; Passy, inconstant Paris, 
even France, regretted his going; friends pressed 
him to remain ; Madame Helvetius, and the worthy 
Brillon, no doubt shed tears. 

It was hard to leave such homage, but Philadel- 
phia triumphed. On the I2th of July, 1785, Frank- 
lin set out for Havre in a comfortable litter belonging 
to the Queen, and " carried by two very large 
mules." With him went his two grandsons. At 
Nantes the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld sent word 
that the travellers must visit his chateau at Gaillon, 
playfully adding that he would take no excuse; for, 
being all-powerful in his archbishopric, his Emi- 
nence would stop them nolens volens, and not permit 
any escape. The invitation was not to be resisted ; 
the Cardinal did the honours in a fashion worthy of 
his rank. Then came more attentions (among them 
the visit of a deputation from the Academy of 
Rouen) until Havre was reached on the i8th of the 
month. Here were further civilities, and four days 
later the gratified American sailed for England, 
never to set eyes again upon the country which had 
loved him so well. At Southampton he was wel- 
comed by a party including WilHam Franklin (with 



1790] Final Days 329 

whom he had a formal reconciliation), and his 
staunch friend, the good Bishop of St. Asaph. 

"The Bishop and family lodging in the same inn, the Star,*' 
Franklin writes, in a diary of the journey, "we all breakfast and 
dine together. I went at noon to bathe in Martin's salt-water hot- 
bath, and floating on my back, fell asleep, and slept near an hour by 
my watch, without sinking or turning ! A thing I never did before, 
and should hardly have thought possible. Water is the easiest bed 
that can be." 

If the diarist was not recording this incident in a 
Pickwickian sense he acquitted himself, for a feeble 
old man, with remarkable aquatic vigour. 

The middle of September found the wanderer 
home again, hardly more shaky in his legs than he 
had been when he sailed from England, and with a 
mind still so bright that he had written three pam- 
phlets during the voyage. 

" With the flood in the morning " — he jots down this entry as the 
ship comes up the familiar Delaware — " came a light breeze, which 
brought us above Gloucester Point, in full view of dear Philadelphia ! 
when we again cast anchor, to wait for the health officer, who, having 
made his visit and finding no sickness, gave us leave to land. My 
son-in-law came with a boat for us ; we landed at Market street 
wharf, where we were received by a crowd of people with huzzas, 
and accompanied with acclamations quite to my door. Found my 
family well. God be praised and thanked for all His mercies ! " 

Did Franklin contrast this last river-entry into 
Philadelphia with the first ? If he did, he may 
have smiled at the turn which the wheel of fortune 
had made, and possibly reflected that he himself 
had much to do with the revolution thereof. 
Nothing could have exceeded in enthusiastic sincer- 



33^ Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

ity the reception given him upon this return. The 
citizens flocked to pay their respects; societies 
waited upon him, and the Assembly drew up an 
address wherein it was said, with more truth than is 
usually to be found in such official flattery, that the 
philosopher's services would be " recorded in the 
pages of history" to his ''immortal honour." 
Then General Washington wrote a letter of wel- 
come: 

" Amid the public congratulations on your safe return to America, 
after a long absence and the many eminent services you have ren- 
dered it, for which as a benefitted person I feel the obligation, permit 
an individual to join the public voice in expressing a sense of them ; 
and to assure you, that, as no one entertains more respect for your 
character, so no one can salute you with more sincerity or with greater 
pleasure, than I do on the occasion." 

How Washingtonian this was, and how it must 
have pleased the recipient ! 

Franklin might luxuriate in the attentions of his 
daughter and grandchildren, but a part of his time 
must again be given to the public. His election to 
the Council was followed by a far more ambitious ele- 
vation to the Presidency of Pennsylvania, a position 
in which he served the State effectively, exerted an 
influence at once imposing and benign, and laboured 
without personal profit, indirect or pecuniary. Yet 
the doctor's energies as head of a great Common- 
wealth were trifling compared to his usefulness as a 
member of the memorable Convention which met in 
Philadelphia (May, 1787) to frame a constitution 
for the better union of the loosely jointed States of 
America, Here his ripened wisdom and knowledge 




SHIP PLANKING. 




SOUP DISHES FOR SHIPBOARD. 




THE RIGGING OF A SHALLOP. 



MARITIME OBSERVATIONS 

AFTER DESIGNS OF NAUTICAL IMPROVEMENTS SUGGESTED BY FRANKLIN. 



i79o] Final Days 331 

of affairs played a leading, if unostentatious part in 
bringing the nation under a federal system which has 
now withstood the wear and tear of over a century. 
The period from the surrender of Lord Corn- 
wallis to the holding of the Convention was one of 
the most critical in our history. Although the 
Revolution had succeeded, there was no cohesion 
between the several States ; the country was in a con- 
dition of unrest born of internal weakness; opinions 
as to method of government were divided, and the 
outlook grew gloomy and then gloomier. 

"The want of power in the central government, arising from the 
defects of the old confederation, was becoming more and more ap- 
parent, and the evils arising from this want of power were pressing 
severely on every side. While the war lasted the external pressure 
held the government together ; but on the return of peace its dissolu- 
tion had become imminent. ... It had, in fact, no power to 
regulate commerce or collect a revenue. This made it incapable of 
executing treaties, fulfilling its foreign engagements, or causing 
itself to be respected by foreign nations. While at home, its weak- 
ness was disgusting the public creditors and raising a clamour of dis- 
content and dissatisfaction on every side. An alarming crisis was 
rapidly approaching. " * 

Thoughtful Americans clearly saw the threaten- 
ing danger. 

" Our affairs," as John Jay wrote to Washington in the summer of 
1786, "seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution — something that 
I cannot foresee or conjecture. T am uneasy and apprehensive, more 
so than during the war. Then we had a fixed object, and though the 
means and time of obtaining it were often problematical, yet I did 
firmly believe that justice was with us. The case is now altered ; we 
are going and doing wrong, and therefore I look forward to evils and 
calamities, but without being able to guess at the instrument, nature, 
or measure of them." 



* The Life and Times of Washington, by J, F. Schroeder, D.D, 



33^ Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

In his reply Washington was no less apprehensive. 

" Things cannot go on in the same train forever," he said, with 
calm sagacity. "It is much to be feared, as you observe, that the 
better kind of people, being disgusted with these circumstances, will 
have their minds prepared for any revolution whatever. We are apt 
to run from one extreme into another. To anticipate and prevent 
disastrous contingencies, would be the part of wisdom and patriotism. 
What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing ! I 
am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form 
of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking : 
thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and 
tremendous ! what a triumph for our enemies to verify their predic- 
tions ! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism, to find that 
we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded 
on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious ! " 

Was the glory of the Revolution to be tarnished 
by anarchy, or would a despotism far greater than 
the overthrown British rule fasten its clutches upon 
the land ? The question was hard to answer, and 
none the less so when the band of rebels under 
Daniel Shay frightened the law-preserving people of 
Massachusetts, by demands which we should now 
term populistic. 

The insurrection came to an end, and when the 
delegates from all the States (Rhode Island alone 
excepted) assembled in Philadelphia on that May 
morning of 1787, the eyes of a waiting nation were 
upon them. The results of the four months' delib- 
erations, with the difficulties in the way of draught- 
ing the constitution, are matters of familiar history."^ 
Throughout the sessions the helping hand and pru- 



* One party in the Convention was anxious to enlarge, another to 
^bridge, the authority delegated to the general government. This 



i79o] Final Days 333 

dent common sense of Franklin exerted an influence 
destined to leave an imperishable impress. Indeed, 
Mr. Bigelow has said that to Franklin, perhaps more 
than to any other man, ** the present constitution 
of the United States owes most of those features 
which have given it durability, and have made it the 
ideal by which all other systems of government are 
tested by Americans. ' ' The instrument, as adopted, ^ 
was not, of course, just what Franklin would have 
made it had his opinion been followed in all things. 
He was in favour of making the Presidential term 
seven years, the incumbent being debarred from a 
second term, and he was Utopian enough to urge 
that the executive should receive no salary. 

" I think," said he, " I see inconveniences in the appointment of 
salaries ; I see none in refusing them, but, on the contrary, great 
advantages. Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influ- 
ence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice ; the 
love of power and the love of money. Separately, each of these has 
great force in prompting men to action ; but, when united in view of 
the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. 
Place before the eyes of such men a post of honour, that shall at the 
same time be a place oi profit, and they will move heaven and earth 
to obtain it." And what kind of men, asked the doctor, will strive 
for the Presidency, " through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of con- 
tention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the 
best of characters?" " It will not be the wise and moderate, the 
lovers of peace and good order, the men fitted for the trust. It will 
be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefat- 
igable activity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves 
into your government and be your rulers." 

was the first germ of parties in the United States ; not that materials 
were wanting, for the dissensions of the Revolution had left behind 
some bitterness of spirit, and feelings that only awaited an oppor- 
tunity for their disclosure. — John Howard Hinton. 



/ 



334 Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

That the delegate failed to carry his point is, per- 
haps, just as well, for a non-salaried Presidency- 
would have become an office only adapted to 
wealthy incumbents. 

But it was in settling the vexed problem as to the 
basis of representation between the large and small 
States of the Union that Franklin put the Conven- 
tion, and the nation, under an eternal obligation. 
The question threatened to imperil the success of 
the deliberations, for while the more populous States 
desired representation according to their importance 
and extent, the lesser ones were jealous of any 
system tending to diminish their own power. At 
this point Franklin proposed that the session should 
be opened each day with prayer, so as to secure the 
assistance of Providence in bringing order out of 
chaos, and a constitution out of disagreement. 

The small progress we have made, after four or 
five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings 
with each other, our different sentiments on almost 
every question, and several of the last producing 
as many Noes as Ayes, is, methinks, a melancholy 
proof of the imperfection of the human understand- 
ing." Thus he addressed Washington, who presided 
over the Convention, and to remedy this uncer- 
tainty he suggested a daily prayer for inspiration. 
The motion was rejected. Later on Franklin came 
forward with another remedy — a compromise, of 
which it has been said that it saved the Union. His 
first contention had been for a single legislative 
body, but now he proposed, as a concession in- 
tended to destroy the jealousies and fears of the 



I790] Final Days 335 

various States, that there should be two Houses, 
with equal representation of States in the Senate, 
and with representation according to population in 
the lower House. The bitterly contested issue was 
solved, and the fruits of that compromise are seen 
in our government as it is constituted to-day. At 
the age of eighty-one the philosopher had given one 
of the most enduring proofs of his powers of state- 
craft; he had shown anew that nobly could he serve 
his exacting master, the Public. 

Franklin did not flatter himself that the constitu- 
tion, as finally agreed upon, was a perfect affair, but 
he believed, prophetically enough, that it would 
serve its great purpose. 

" I doubt," said he, " whether any other Convention we can ob- 
tain, may be able to make a better constitution ; for, when you as- 
semble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint 
wisdom, you inevitably assemble with these men all their prejudices, 
their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their 
selfish views. From such an assembly," he asks, "can a perfect 
production be expected ?" 

He confesses, in his speech at the close of the 
Convention, that he is astonished to find the consti- 
tution so near perfection as it is — ** and I think it 
will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with con- 
fidence to hear that our counsels are confounded 
like those of the builders of Babel, and that our 
States are on the point of separation, only to meet 
hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's 
throats. Thus, I consent, sir, to this constitution, 
because I expect no better, and because I am not 
sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have 



^3^ Benjamin Franklin [17S4- 

had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good." 
It was the singular good fortune of Franklin that 
having signed the constitution he likewise lived long 
enough to see its ratification, and to witness the 
election of Washington as first President of the 
nation which the two of them had helped so valiantly 
V to create. 

The doctor's end was not far away; infirmities 
were increasing, and a serious internal trouble 
began to undermine his once rugged constitution. 
Yet he took the same keen enjoyment in life as of 
old, and found in correspondence the familiar 
pleasure. Letters on all conceivable subjects illu- 
mine these final years with a brilliance more akin to 
the noonday sun than to the twilight of genius. 
Would that he had finished \\i^ Autobiography while 
the hand remained to guide the ready pen. He 
writes to his friend, M. Le Veillard (February, 
1788), that he would have gone on with the mem- 
oirs ** if I could well have avoided accepting the 
chair of President [of Pennsylvania] for this third 
and last year; to which I was again elected by the 
luianiviotis voice of the Council and General As- 
sembly in November. If I live to see this year ex- 
pire, I may enjoy some leisure, which I promise 
you to employ in the work you do me the honour 
to urge so earnestly." The Autobiography was con- 
tinued, but death found the narrative provokingly 
incomplete. It must not, however, be forgotten 
that in keeping up his correspondence until the very 
last the veteran was finishing an autobiography less 
connected, yet hardly less interesting, than a more 



ngo] Final Days 2>?>7 

formal record. There are pretty little touches in 
these sunset letters, as when, for instance, Franklin 
tells Madame Lavoisier: 

" I have a long time been disabled from writing to my dear friend, 
by a severe fit of the gout, or I should sooner have returned my 
thanks for her very kind present of the portrait, which she has her- 
self done me the honour to make of me. It is allowed by those, 
who have seen it, to have great merit as a picture in every respect ; 
but what particularly endears it to me is the hand that drew it. Our 
English enemies, when they were in possession of this city and my 
house [one of the enemies thus accused, probably wrongly, was 
Andre], made a prisoner of my portrait, and carried it off with them, 
leaving that of its companion, my wife, by itself, a kind of widow. 
You have replaced the husband, and the lady seems to smile as well 
pleased. It is true, as you observe, that I enjoy here everything a 
reasonable mind can desire, a sufficiency of income, a comfortable 
habitation of my own building, having all the conveniences I could 
imagine ; a dutiful and affectionate daughter to nurse and take care 
of me, a number of promising grandchildren, some old friends still 
remaining to converse with, and more respect, distinction, and public 
honours than I can possibly merit. These are the blessings of God, 
and depend on His continued goodness ; yet all do not make me for- 
get Paris, and the nine years' happiness I enjoyed there, in the sweet 
society of a people whose conversation is instructive, whose manners 
are highly pleasing, and who, above all the nations of the world, 
have, in the greatest perfection, the art of making themselves be- 
loved by strangers. And now, even in my sleep, I find, that the 
scenes of all my pleasant dreams are laid in that city, or in its neigh- 
bourhood." 

Another letter of a far different kind is addressed 
to the President of Congress, and prays that Frank- 
lin's accounts with the government may be audited 
and settled. 

" It is now more than three years that those accounts have been 
before that honourable body," he explains, " and, to this day, no 



33^ Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

notice of any such objection [as to the accuracy of these accounts] 
has been communicated to me. But reports have, for some time 
past, been circulated here, and propagated in the newspapers, that I 
am greatly indebted to the United States for large sums, that had 
been put into my hands, and that I avoid a settlement. This, to- 
gether with the little time one of my age may expect to live, makes 
it necessary for me to request earnestly, which I hereby do, that the 
Congress would be pleased, without further delay, to examine those 
accounts, and if they find therein any article or articles, which they 
do not understand or approve, that they would cause me to be 
acquainted with the same," etc. 

It is almost needless to add that the newspaper 
reports were untrue, and that if there happened to be 
any question as to balance due, the doctor was the 
creditor and not the debtor. But Congress, no 
longer as noble a body as in the days of '']6, did 
not take the trouble to grant his request. 

Of the rancour of the press, from which, as we 
have just seen, even he was not altogether exempt, 
Franklin had something trenchant to say in a satire 
which he published in the September of 1789, after 
he had retired from public life and was fast nearing 
the end of all earthly controversy. " An Account 
of the Supremest Court of Judicature in Pennsyl- 
vania, viz. the Court of the Press " was the suggest- 
ive title of the brochure, and in it the writer asserted 
that the aforesaid court had been established in 
favour " of about one citizen in five hundred, who, 
by education or practice in scribbling, has acquired 
a tolerable style as to grammar and construction, so 
as to bear printing, or who is possessed of a press 
and a few types. This five-hundredth part of the 
citizens have the privilege of accusing and abusing 



I790] Final Days 339 

the other four hundred and ninety-nine parts at 
their pleasure ; or they may hire out their pens and 
press to others for that purpose." The support of 
such an institution, it was contended cynically, was 
founded in the depravity of such minds, as have 
not been mended by religion, nor improved by good 
education: 

' ' ' There is a lust in man no charm can tame, 
Of loudly publishing his neighbour's shame.' 

" Hence: 

'* ' On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly, 

While virtuous actions are but born and die.' 

— Dkyden. 

" Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbour, 
will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And of those who, despairing 
to rise into distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be 
depressed to a level with themselves, there are a number sufficient in 
every great town to maintain one of these courts by their subscrip- 
tion. A shrewd observer once said, that, in walking the streets in a 
slippery morning, one might see where the good-natured people 
lived by the ashes thrown on the ice before their doors ; probably he 
would have formed a different conjecture of the temper of those 
whom he might find engaged in such a subscription." 

Journalism of to-day does not, as a whole, justify 
this estimate of a past condition, although even now 
there are a few newspapers which do not put ashes 
in front of their doors. Franklin ends his critique 
by asking how the abuse of libel is to have checks 
placed upon it. 

"Hitherto there are none," he says. "But since so much has 
been written and published on the Federal Constitution, and the ne- 
cessity of checks in all other parts of good government has been so 



340 Benjamin Franklin [17^4- 

clearly and learnedly explained, I find myself so far enlightened as to 
suspect some check may be proper in this part also ; but I have been 
at a loss to imagine any that may not be construed an infringement 
of the sacred lihej-ty of the press. At length, however, I think I have 
found one that, instead of diminishing general liberty, shall augment 
it ; which is, by restoring to the people a species of liberty, of which 
they have been deprived by our laws, I mean the liberty of the cudgel. 
In the rude state of society prior to the existence of laws, if one man 
gave another ill language, the affronted person would return it by a 
box on the ear, and, if repeated, by a good drubbing ; and this with- 
out offending against any law. But now the right of making such 
returns is denied, and they are punished as breaclies of the peace ; 
while the right of abusing seems to remain in full force, the laws 
made against it being rendered ineffectual by the liberty of the press. 
My proposal then is, to leave the liberty of the press untouched, to be 
exercised in its full extent, force and vigour ; but to permit the 
liberty of the cudgel to go with it par passu. Thus, my fellow-citi- 
zens, if an impudent writer attacks your reputation, dearer to you 
perhaps than }our life, and puts his name to the charge, you may go 
to him as openly and break his head. If he conceals himself behind 
the printer, and you can nevertheless discover who he is, you may in 
like manner way-lay him in the night, attack him behind, and give 
him a good drubbing. ... If, however, it should be thought 
that proposal of mine may disturb the public peace, I would then 
humbly recommend to our legislators to take up the consideration of 
both liberties, that of the press, and that of the cudgel, and l)y an 
explicit law mark their extent and limits ; and, at the same time that 
they secure the person of a citizen from assaults, they would likewise 
provide for the security of his reputation." 

This was a pretty virile protest for an octogenar- 
ian, to whom life, through the inroads of disease, 
was now become a physical burden. Franklin 
passed much of his time in bed, and he wrote to 
Washington that *' for my own personal ease I 
should have died two years ago; but, though those 
years have been spent in excruciating pain, I am 
pleased that I have lived them, since they have 




WATER UMBRELLA. 
MARITIME OBSERVATIONS. 

AFTER DESIGNS OF NAUTICAL IMPROVEMENTS SUGGESTED BY FRANKLIN. 



I790] Final Days 341 

brought me to see our present situation." Ill as he 
was, his interest in America and in humanity at large 
never flagged ; less than a month before his death 
the philosopher issued a parody directed against the 
slave trade, and practically in support of the aims 
of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the 
Abolition of Slaveiy, of which he was the Presi- 
dent. He was often a prey to the most intense 
suffering — so much so, indeed, that strong sedatives 
were given him — but at other times he read, talked 
with members of the household or with visitors, 
and in every instance, as his physician related, " dis- 
played not only that readiness and disposition of 
doing good, which was the distinguishing character- 
istic of his life, but the fullest and clearest possession 
of his uncommon mental abilities; and not infre- 
quently indulged himself in those je?ix d' esprit and 
entertaining anecdotes which were the delight of all 
who heard him." Early in April of 1790, the con- 
dition of the patient was complicated by a fever; 
this finally left him, and the family were beginning 
to hope for at least a rally when respiration became 
difficult, a stupor ensued, and during the evening 
of the seventeenth of the month Benjamin Franklin 
was peacefully released from the world wherein he 
had played so earnest and glowing a part. A great 
light had gone out; there was darkness in Philadel- 
phia that night. 

The funeral of Franklin was in harmony with the 
reputation that he left behind him. There was 
dignified ceremonial rather than ostentation, and 
sincere sorrow instead of expressions of perfunctory 



342 Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

sympathy. His body was laid beside that of his 
wife in Christ Church burying-ground, and over 
twenty thousand citizens took part in the proces- 
sion which marched to Fifth and Arch Streets to 
the accompaniment of tolHng bells and the firing of 
minute guns.* Eloquent tributes to the virtues of 
the deceased came from all quarters, and in Con- 
gress it was resolved unanimously that the members 
should wear a badge of mourning for one month, 
** as a mark of due veneration to the memory of a 
citizen whose native genius was not more an orna- 
ment to human nature than his various exertions of 



* The tomb of Franklin and his wife bears but this inscription • 

Benjamin \ 

AND >■ Franklin 
Deborah ) 
1790. 
The simplicity of the wording was in accord with the instructions 
contained in Franklin's will. Nothing was said therein about the 
fanciful epitaph which he wrote for himself when twenty-three years 
old, to wit : 

The Body 

OF 

Benjamin Franklin 
Printer 

(Like the cover of an old book 

Its contents torn out 
And stript of its lettering and gilding) 

Lies here, food for worms. 
But the work shall not be lost 

For it will (as he believed) appear once more 
In a new and more elegant edition 

Revised and corrected 
by 
The Author. 



I790] Final Days 343 

it have been precious to science, to freedom, and to 
his country." In France the respect and affection 
for the memory of the dead philosopher had striking 
illustration. 

" Franklin is dead ! " said Mirabeau solemnly, as he addressed the 
National Assembly. " The genius which gave freedom to America, 
and scattered torrents of light upon Europe, is returned to the bosom 
of the Divinity. The sage, whom two worlds claim ; the man, dis- 
puted by the history of the sciences and the history of empires, holds, 
most undoubtedly, an elevated rank among the human species." 

Upon the motion of Mirabeau the Assembly wore 
mourning for three days ; its President wrote a 
letter of condolence to Congress ; eulogies were 
spoken ; the Paris Commune marked the event in a 
fitting way, and tl^e printers of the capital held a 
meeting at which, in the presence of a great assem- 
blage, they did honour to the departed member of 
their craft. A little later one of the streets of Passy 
was named after the beloved Franklin. It seemed 
as if the tide of homage would never turn.* 



* Franklin's fortune was valued, before his death, as worth at least 
$150,000 — a large sum for those days. In his will he provided lib- 
erally for Mrs. Bache and her husband, made lesser bequests to vari- 
ous other members of his family, remembered several of his old 
friends by presents of personal effects, and left, besides other lega- 
cies, a fund of ;!^2000 sterling to be used, primarily, in assisting 
"young married artificers " of Boston and Philadelphia, who desired 
to borrow small sums at interest — a very charitable idea, which did not, 
however, prove as popular with the " artificers" as the testator ex- 
pected. One of Franklin's private bequests was to Washington : 
" My fine crab tree walking stick, with a gold head curiously wrought 
in the form of the cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend 
of mankind, General Washingto7i. If it were a sceptre he has 
merited it ; and would become it." 



344 Benjamin Franklin [1784- 

Thus to a life of singular completeness came a 
well-rounded, appropriate ending. As it was Frank- 
lin's privilege to bring to a successful issue so many 
of the projects, great and small, for which he 
laboured, so was it his fortune to die in the incense- 
burning atmosphere that rises from the ministering 
love of kindred and the admiration of the world. 
He lived to see America take her place among the 
nations of the earth, to see the realisation of his 
fondest hopes, and then, ere age had dimmed that 
brilliant mind or caused him to lag superfluous on 
the scene, friendly death arrived at the nick of time. 

The best estimate of the philosopher's genius is to 
be found in the simple record of his achievements, and 
in the indelible mark which they have left behind 
as a noble heritage to posterity. These achieve- 
ments speak more eloquently than a hundred ora- 
tions or pages of adjectives. Franklin had his 
weaknesses and his errata, but he was of heroic 
mould, for all that, and everyone, save professors 
of a cheap cynicism, can forget the failings of the 
man in recalling his magnificent usefulness, the 
natural gifts which he employed in the finest spirit 
of altruism, and the patriotic heart that guided the 
mighty head. Lofty, yet practical, in statesman- 
ship, brilliant in science, luminous in writing, fear- 
less in love of country, humane in disposition, 
genial in intercourse with his fellows, helpful in all 
things, and colossal in the power to compass his ends 
— such was he upon whose like we are not to look 
again. For there can be but one Franklin. There 
have been, as there will be again, greater statesmen. 



i79o] 



Final Days 



345 



deeper thinkers, and more dazzling personalities 
than he, yet in versatility of talent, catholicity of 
intellect, and variety of accomplishment he stands 
without a peer. As his " single breast contained 
the spirit of his nation," so, likewise, did it contain 
the spirit of a hundred different interests. The 
world at large has cause to thank him, while to 
Americans he will always be the typical patriot. 
That is not the patriot of the pyrotechnic kind, who 
poses as a stage hero, nor the politician whose heart 
is in his purse ; it is the patriot who has been essen- 
tial to his country, and whose honesty of purpose 
should be studied within the halls of every legisla- 
ture in the land. Such was Benjamin Franklin. 




INDEX 



Adams, John, 246, 249-251, 267, 

276, 277, 286, 287, 289, 291- 

295. 297-299 
Adams, Samuel, 231, 277 
Address ** To the inhabitants of 

the Counties of Lancaster, 

York, and Cumberland," 98, 

99 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 74 
Albany, Convention of, 83, 84 
Allen, Chief-Justice, 139, 140, 

159, 160, 163, 302, 303 
American Philosophical Society, 

36, 87 
An Account of N egottations in 
London for Effecting a Recon- 
ciliation^ etc., 227 
An Account of the Neiv-invented 
Pennsylvania Fireplaces, etc. , 
320, 321 
An Account of the Supremest 
Court of Judicature in Penn- 
sylvania, etc., 338-340 
Andre, Major, 337 
Arnold, Benedict, 244, 245 
Austin, Jonathan Loring, 288 
Autobiography, Benjamin Frank- 
lin's, quoted, 3-6, 9, 12, 15, 
16, 18-20, 23, 26, 29, 31, 33- 
36, 47, 48, 50-52, 54, 55- 58, 
69-72, 75-78, 84, 86, 90, 91, 
96-100, 104, 105, 108, 113- 



117, 121-123, 125-135, 137, 
138, 314-316, 318, 319, 321 



B 



Bache, Benjamin F., 260, 261 
Bache, Richard, 311, 312, 329, 

343 
Bache, Sarah {^See Sarah Frank- 
lin) 
Bagatelles {The), 2S1, 324 
Bancroft, George, quoted, 84, 85, 

169, 170, 182, 183, 273 
Barclay, David, 230, 231 
Barclay, Messrs., 140 
Bariatinski, Prince, 296 
Basket, King's printer, 26 
Bath, Earl of, 141 
Beaumarchais, P. A. Caron, 253- 

257, 261-263, 268-270, 279, 

288 
Bernard, Governor, 187 
Biddle, John, 302 
Bigelow, John, 3, 333 
Bollan, William, 210, 2II 
Bond, Dr., 90 
Bostock, N., 43 
Boston Gazette, II, 203 
Boston " Tea Party," 199 
Bourbon, Duchess of, 270, 271 
Braddock, General, 92-109, 129, 

181, 243, 304, 305 
Bradford, Andrew, 18-20, 36-38, 

44, 49, 65, 88, 89 



347 



348 



Index 



Bradford, Messrs., i8o 
Bradford, William, 17-20 
Brillon, Madame, 281, 328 
Brocker, William, 11 
Budden, Captain, 309 
Burgoyne, General, 271, 272, 

288, 313 
Burke, Edmund, 141 
Burke, William, 141 
Burnet, Governor, 23 
Busybody papers, 38, 39, 323 
Bute, Lord, 181 

C 

Cambridge University, 135, 136 

Campbell, John, 11 

Canton, Mr., 318 

Carlisle, conference at, 77, 78 

Carroll, Charles, 244 

Carroll, Rev. John, 244, 245 

Cerdicus, 194 

Chamberlain, Mellin, 198 

Charles, Mr., 138 

Charlotte, consort of George III., 

183, 184 
Chase, Samuel, 244 
Chatham, Earl of, 129, 135, 142, 

175, 176, 225, 227-229, 235- 

237 
Cibber, Colley, 27 
Clapham, Colonel, 116 
Clinton, Governor, 69 
Coleman, William, 47, 48 
Collins, John, 17, 20, 23, 24, 47, 

60 
Collinson, Peter, 131, 314, 315 
"Committee of Correspondence," 

198, 204 
Congress (colonial and independ- 
ent), 227, 232, 233, 239-242, 
244-251, 256-260, 270, 290- 

294, 325, 327, 337, 338, 342 
Convention of 1787, 330-336 
Cool Thoughts on the Present 
Situation of our Public Af- 
fairs, 157, 158, 323 
Cornwallis, Lord, 293, 331 
Coultas, Captain, 305, 307 
Gushing, Thomas, 191, 213, 219, 
222 



D 



Dalibard, M., 316 

Dartmouth, Earl of, 192, 193, 

204, 205, 239 
Davenport, Mr., 174 
Deane, Silas, 257, 259, 261-264, 

268-270, 276, 287, 290 
De Berdt, Mr., 188 
Declaration of Independence, 

signed by Franklin, 245, 246 
Defoe, Daniel, 7 
De Grey, Lord Chief-Justice, 

212, 213 
De la Roche, Abbe, 279 
De Lor, M., 316 
Denham, Mr., 30, 31 
Denmark, King of, 296, 297 
Denny, Governor, 120-127, 136, 

/37 
D'Estang, Count, 274 
Dialogue betzveen Franklin and 

the Gout, 279, 280 
Dialogue between X, V, and Z, 

etc., 112, 113, 323 
Dickinson, John, 159, 162-164, 

} 73 
Dinwiddie, Governor, 80 

Dissertation on Liberty and Ne- 
cessity ^ Pleasure and Pain, 28 
Do Good papers, 1 3 
Dubourg, Dr., 257-259 
Dunbar, Colonel, 103, 108, 109 
Dunning, John, 213, 217 
Du Nord, Count, 296 



E 



East India Company, 198, 199 
Edict of the King of Prussia^ 

194-197 
Edinburgh University, 136 
Edison, Franklin compared with, 

322 
Ephemera {The), 281 

F 

Fisher, Daniel, 301-308 
Folger, Abiah, 5 



Index 



349 



Folger, Peter, 5 

Foster, Dr. James, 54 

Foster, John, quoted, 322 

Fothergill, Dr., 131, 231 

Fox, Charles James, 288 

Fox, Joseph, 151 

Franklin, Benjamin : contrasts in 
his career, 2, 3 ; ancestors, 4 ; 
birth, 5 ; childhood, 6, 7 ; ap- 
prenticed to printing, 8 ; early 
reading, 7-9 ; works for Boston 
Gazette^ 12-16 ; leaves Boston, 
17; reaches Philadelphia, 18, 
19 ; employed by Keimer, 20 ; 
returns to Boston, 22 ; back in 
Philadelphia, 23 ; sails for Lon- 
don, 25 ; life in London, 26- 
30; home again, 31 ; in Bur- 
lington, 35 ; founds printing- 
house, with Meredith, 35, 36 ; 
the Junto, 36, 37; publishes 
Pennsylvania Gazette^ 40 ; es- 
tablishes Poor Richard's Al- 
manac, 44 ; dissolves partner- 
ship with Meredith, 48; marries 
Deborah Read, 51 ; visits Bos- 
ton, 53 ; establishes Philadel- 
phia Library, 56, 57; his versa- 
tility, 59-61 ; political virtues, 
62, 63 ; made postmaster of 
Philadelphia, 64 ; opposes 
Quakers, 65-74 ; elected to the 
Assembly, 75 ; visits Carlisle, 
77, 78 ; made Postmaster-Gen- 
eral of the Colonies, 79; attends 
Albany Convention, 83 ; con- 
nection with public institutions, 
87 ; his magazine, 87-89 ; aids 
Pennsylvania Hospital, 90, 91; 
contrast to Braddock, 95 ; meets 
Braddock, 96 ; aids Braddock, 
98-100 ; described by Thack- 
eray, loi, 102 ; opinion of 
Braddock, 108 ; draws up mi- 
litia bill, 112; commissioned 
colonel, 113; fortifies Gnaden- 
hutten, 115 ; angers Thomas 
Penn, iiS ; receives Governor 
Denny, 120-123 > meets Lord 
Loudoun, 125 ; sails for Lon- 



don, 128 ; reaches London, 
130, 131 ; interview with the 
Penns, 133 ; English civilities, 
135. 136 ; outwits the Penns, 
138; abused by enemies, 140; 
political writings, 141, 142 ; 
returns to America, 143 ; hon- 
oured at home, 144, 145 ; de- 
scribes Paxton massacre, 147- 
150; assists Governor Penn, 
152-154; writes Cool Thoughts , 
157. 158; made Speaker of 
Assembly, 159 ; defeated at 
election, 162 ; controversy 
with proprietary party, 162- 
166; in London again, 167; 
opposes Stamp Act, 169 ; nom- 
inates Hughes, 170, 171 ; sud- 
den unpopularity, 171-174 ; 
urges repeal, 176 ; examination 
before the House of Commons, 
176-179 ; the victim of cal- 
umny, 180, 181 ; visits Paris, 
183, 184 ; interview with Hills- 
borough, 186-190 ; further ex- 
periences with Hillsborough, 
190-193 ; Edict of the King of 
Prussia, 194-197 ; reads the 
Hutchinson letters, 201-203 J 
writes Lord Dartmouth, 204, 
205 ; exonerates Temple, 209 ; 
before the Privy Council, 211- 
213 ; sued by Whately, 214, 
215 ; assailed by Wedderburn, 
217-221 ; dismissed from the 
postmaster-generalship, 222 ; 
designs his Magna Britanniay 
225, 226; meets Lord Chat- 
ham, 227-229; plays chess with 
Mistress Howe, 230-233 ; in- 
terview with Lord Howe, 233, 
234 ; insulted by Lord Sand- 
wich, 236 ; death of Deborah 
Franklin, 23S, 239 ; returns to 
Philadelphia, 239 ; his personal 
appearance, 240 ; attends Con- 
gress, 240-242 ; confers with 
Washington, 242, 243 ; mission 
to Canada, 244, 245 ; signs 
Declaration of Independence, 



350 



Index 



Franklin, Benjamin — Continued 
245, 246 ; in the Pennsyl- 
vania Convention, 248; confers 
with Lord Howe, 250-252 ; 
writes to Dubourg, 257 ; sails 
for France as envoy, 260 ; 
at Nantes, 263 ; arrives in 
Paris, 266 ; his popularity, 
267 ; hears of Burgoyne's sur- 
render, 272 ; signs the French 
treaties, 273 ; received at Ver- 
sailles, 274-276 ; his mode of 
life, described by John Adams, 
277 ; the Dialogue between 
Franklin and the Gout, 279, 
280 ; at a fete champetre, 281, 
282 ; correspondence with 
Hartley, 283-285; the " de 
Weissenstein " incident, 285- 
288; made sole plenipotentiary, 
290; disagreement with Adams, 
291-293 ; working for peace, 
294-298 ; signs the preliminary 
treaty with Great Britain, 298; 
appeases De Vergennes, 299 ; 
further diplomatic work, 300 ; 
kind treatment of Daniel 
Fisher, 303-308 ; his domestic 
interests, 308-313 ; electrical 
researches, 314-319 ; invents 
the Armonica, 320 ; the 
"Franklin stove," 320, 321 ; 
his literary achievements, 322- 
324 ; reconciliation with Wil- 
liam Franklin, 326, 327 ; leaves 
France, 328 ; returns to Phila- 
delphia, 329, 330 ; becomes 
President of Pennsylvania, 
330; services in the Convention 
of 1787, 332-336; writes to 
Madame Lavoisier, 337 ; criti- 
cises freedom of the press, 338- 
340 ; his death, 341 ; funeral, 
341, 342 ; sorrow in France, 
343 ; his will, 343 ; estimate of 
his life and character, 344, 345 

Franklin, Benjamin, Sr. ; uncle 
of Dr, Franklin, 4 

Franklin, Deborah, 19, 20, 24, 
27,31, 50-52,60,61, 135, 137, 



144, 145, 166, 173, 174, 238, 
239. 303, 304, 306-312, 342 
Franklin, Francis F., 53 
Franklin, James, 8, 11-17, 22, 

53 
Franklin, John, 22 
Franklin, Josiah, 4-8, 17, 21, 22, 

158 
Franklin, Samuel, 8 
Franklin, Sarah, 144, 166, 173, 

174, 181, 239, 306, 309-314. 

337, 343 
Franklin, Thomas, 4 
Franklin, Mrs. William, 145, 146 
Franklin, William, 18, 76, 80, 

97, 103, 126, 131, 135, 143, 

173, 181, 185, 192, 197, 227, 

238, 239, 242, 305-308, 310. 

317, 325-329 
Franklin, William Temple, 242, 

260, 261, 280, 326, 327 
Frederick the Great, 194, 196, 

197 
French, Colonel, 21 
Fry, Colonel, 82 



G 



Gage, General, 226, 239 
Galileo, Franklin compared with, 

322 
Galloway, Joseph, 159-162 
Garrick, David, 27, 135 
General Magazine and Historical 

Chronicle, 87-89 
George IL, King, 103, 139 
George HL, King, 142, 143, 180, 

183, 184, 202, 222, 223, 229, 

241, 246, 249, 272, 283, 285, 

286 
George IV., King, 288 
Gerard, M., 272, 313 
Gibbon, Edward, 265, 266 
Glen, Governor, 81 
Godfrey, Thomas, 35, 49, 50 
Godfrey, Mrs. Thomas, 49, 50 
Godsend ; or. The Wreckers^ 284, 

285 
Gower, Lord, 219 
Grace, Robert, 47, 48 



Index 



35^ 



Grafton, Duke of, 185 
Granville, Lord, 131, 132 
Grenville, George, 169-172, 176, 
181, 201 

H 

Halifax, Lord, 94 
Halket, Sir Peter, 106, 107 
Hall, David, 75, 311 
Hamilton, James, 136, 147 
Hancock, John, 247, 263, 286 
Handel, George Frederick, 135 
Harrison, Benjamin, 243 
Hartley, David, 283-285 
Harvard College, 13, 87 
Hella, 194 
Helvetius, Madame, 278, 279, 

281, 328 
Hemphill, Rev., 53, 54 
Hengist, 194 
Hewson, Mrs., 264 
Hillsborough, Earl of, 185-193 
Hinton, J. H., quoted, 332, 333 
Hints for Conversation , etc., 233 
Hopson, Admiral, 43 
Horsa, 194 

Houdetot, Countess of, 281, 282 
Howe, Hon. Mrs., 230-235 
Howe, Lord, 230, 233-235, 237, 

238, 248-252 
Howe, Sir William, 248, 249, 

271, 272 
Hughes, John, 170-173 
Hunter, William, 79 
Hutchinson, Governor, 187-189, 

198, 200-202, 204-206, 209- 

211, 214, 217, 220-222, 226 
Hutchinson letters, affair of, 

200-223 



Ida, Angle chieftain, 194 
Indians : conference with at Car- 
lisle, 77, 78 ; massacre of the 
Susquehannocks, 147-149 
Innis, Colonel, 305 
Innis, messenger, 127, 128 
Izard, Ralph, 207, 208, 274, 
289-291 



Jay, John, 294, 295, 297-299, 

331 
Jefferson, Thomas, 246, 247, 259, 

260, 299, 300, 327 
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 204, 215 
Jones, John Paul, 288, 2S9 
Journal of the A^egotiatiojis for 

Peace with Great Britain, 294- 

297 
Junto Club, 36, 37, 57 



K 



Karnes, Lord, 143, 154 
Keimer, Samuel, 19-21, 24, 31- 

40, 88 
Keith, Sir William, 21, 22, 24- 

26, 31 
Kennedy, Captain, 130 
Kinnersley, Mr,, 315 



Lafayette, Marquis of, 268, 290 
Laurens, Henry, 299 
Lavoisier, Madame, 337 
Le Despencer, Lord, 196, 197 
Lee, Arthur, 188, 207, 208, 213, 

255, 259-261, 263, 264, 268- 

270, 275, 289-291 
Lee, John, 213, 217 
Lee, William, 274 
Le Roy. M., 296, 316 
Le Veillard, M., 336 
Logan, James, 72, 73 
Lojidon Chronicle, 142 
Lopez, Captain, 74 
Loudoun, Earl of, 124-130 
Louis XV., and his Queen, 184 
Louis XVI , 253-255, 268, 272- 

275, 292, 299, 327, 328 
Lynch, Thomas, 243 



M 



Macclesfield, Earl of, 319 
Magna Britannia ; her Colonies 
Reduced, 225, 226 



35^ 



Index 



Mansfield, Lord, 138, 139, 196 
Marie Antoinette, 253, 254, 275, 

276, 327, 328 
Marlborough, Duke of, 105 
Mather, Cotton, 5, 7 
Mather, Increase, 14 
Mauduit, Israel, 210-212 
McMaster, John Bach, quoted, 

167 
Mecom, Jane, 310 
Mercer, Mr., 307 
Merctiry (Bradford's), 37, 38, 

43, 44, 49, 65, 88, 89 
Meredith, Hugh, 34-37, 40, 47, 

48 
Meredith, Sr., 35, 47, 48 
Mirabeau, 343 
Modest Enquiry into the Nature 

and Necessity of a Paper Cur- 
rency^ 39 
Monongahela, battle of the, 106, 

107 
Morris, Captain, 125 
Morris, Governor, 86, 87, 93, 

109, no, 113, 115, 120, 123 
Morris, James, 71, 72 

N 

Narrative of the Late Massacres 

in Lancaster County, 149, 150 

Necessary Hints to those that 

would be Rich, 323 
Nelson, Hon. Mr., 302 
New England Cour ant, 11-17 
News Letter, 11, 12 
Nollet, Abbe, 315, 316 
Norris, Isaac, 77, 125, 159 
North, Lord, 219, 226, 294 
Notes for Conversation, 295 

O 

Oldfield, Anne, 27 

Oliver, Andrew, 201-206, 209- 
211, 220-222 

Opinions and Conjectures con- 
cerning the Properties and 
Effects of the Electrical Matter^ 
etc., 317. 3/8 

Orme, Captain, 107 



Oswald, Richard, 294, 295 
Oxford University, 136 



Palmer, Anthony, 69, 70 

Paris, Ferdinand John, 134, 138 

Parton, James, quoted, 192, 240 

" Paxton Boys," 146-155 

Paxton, Charles, 203 

Penet, M., 264 

Penn, John, 147, 148, 151-158 

Penn, Richard, 56, 119, 121, 

133-137, 139, 147, 160, 161 
Penn, Thomas, 56, 118, 119, 

121, 133-137, 139, 160, 161 
Penn, William, 72, 73, 147 
Pennsylvania Gazette, 40-44, 46- 

49, 58, 65, 75, 82, 83, 88 
Pennsylvania Hospital, 87, 90, 91 
Pennsylvania yournal, 180, 181 
Peter the Great, 297 
Pettit, Mr., 162 
Philadelphia, growing prosperity 

of, 56 
Philadelphia Library, 56, 57 
Pitt, William {See Earl of Chat- 
ham) 
Plain Truth, 67-69, 72, 73 
Poor Richard's Almanac, 44-46, 

75 
Pope, Alexander, 24 
Pownall, John, 187-189 
Pratt, Henry, 64 
Price, Richard, 279 
Priestley, Dr., 219, 221, 222, 

240, 243 
Pringle, Sir John, 183, 184 
Public Advertiser, 195, 209 
Pub lick Occurrences , 10, ii 



Quakers : influence of, 56; 
Franklin opposes their non-re- 
sistance policy, 65-75 

R 

Ralph, James, 24-29, 60, 124, 

131 
Raynal, Abbe, 271 



Index 



35. 



Read, Deborah {See Deborah 
Franklin) 

Read, Mr., 20 

Read, Mrs., 50 

Reed, Joseph, 162 

Remarks Coiictrnins; the Savages 
of North America, 7S, 79 

Remarks on a Late Protest, etc., 
164-166 

Revenue {The), quoted, 219 

Riddlesden, attorney, 26 

Rochambeau, Count of, 291 

Rochefoucauld, Cardinal de la, 
328 

Rochefoucauld, Due de la, 300 

Rockingham, Marquis of , 175 

Rogers, Mr., 50, 51 

Rules for Reducing a Great Em- 
pire to a Small One, 193, 197, 

323, 324 
Rush, Dr., 260 
Rutledge, Edward, 249-251 



Saint-Pierre, commander, 81 
Sandwich, Lord, 185, 236, 237, 

239 
Sargent, W., quoted, 94, 106, 

107 
Schroeder, Dr. J. F., quoted, 

331 
Shay, Daniel, 332 
Shehaes, the Indian, 147, 149, 

155 
Shelburne, Lord, 288, 294, 295 
Shepherd, Dr. W. R., quoted, 

123 
Shirley, Governor, 85, loS 
Socrates, Franklin compared 

with, 59. 60 
Soumien, Mr., 303, 306 
Sparks, Jared, quoted, 177, 320 
Spence, Dr., 314 
Spotswood, Governor, 64, 65, 89 
St. Asaph, Bishop of, 329 
St. Clair, Quartermaster-General, 

96, 100 
Stamp Act, passed, 169; repealed, 

180 



Stanhope, Lord, 235 
Stevenson, Mrs., 310 
Stone, Dr. F. D., 90 
Stormont, Lord, 262, 263, 265, 

267. 269, 274 
Story of the Whistle, 2Sr 
Strahan, William, 215, 241 



Temple, John, 206-209 
Thackeray, \V. M., 95, 100: 

quoted, 101-103 
Thomas, Governor, 66, 69, 321 
Thomson, Cliarles, 170 
Trent, Captain, 82 
Tucker, Rev. Dr., 171 
Tyler, Moses Coit, quoted, 59, 

60 



U 



Uffa, 194 

Universal Instructor in all Arts 

and Sciences, 38, 40 
University of Pennsylvania, 87, 

University of St. Andrew, 136 



V 



Vergennes, Count of, 254-256, 
261, 263, 265, 268, 272. 275, 
287, 291-295, 297-299, 327, 328 

Vernon, Mr., 22, 23, 47 

Virginians { The), roi-103 

Voltaire, 253, 276 

W 

Walpole, IL, quoted, 93 

Walthoe, Mr., 307 

Ward, ensign, 82 

Washington, George, 80-82, 95, 
106, 240, 242, 243, 277, 2bf), 
313, 327, 330-332, 334, 336. 
340, 343 

Watson, Dr., 318 

Watson, J. F., quoted, no 



354 



Index 



Way to Wealth ( T/ie), 46, 323 
Webbe, John, 87-S9 
Wedderburn, Alexander, 211- 

213, 215-222, 224 
Weissenstein, Charles de, 285- 

288 
VVhately, Thomas, 206-209, 214, 

215, 218 
Wh?.tely, William, 201, 206, 

207, 214, 217, 218 



Whitefield, Rev. George, 55,56 
Whitehead, Paul, ig6, 197 
Wilkes, comedian, 27 
Willing, Thomas, 163 
Wood, Dr., 90 
Wright, Dr., 3T8 



Yale College, 87 




Heroes of the Nations. 



EDITED BY 



EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., 
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 



A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work 
of a number of representative historical characters about 
whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations 
to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in 
many instances, as types of the several National ideals. 
With the life of each typical character will be presented 
a picture of the National conditions surrounding him 
during his career. 

The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- 
nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while 
thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque 
and dramatic " stories " of the Men and of the events con- 
nected with them. 

To the Life of each *' Hero " will be given one duo- 
decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- 
vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to 
the special requirements of the several subjects. The 
volumes will be sold separately as follows : 

Large 12°, cloth extra $1 50 

Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top . . . I 75 



The following are now ready : 



Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark Russell, author A 

" The Wreck of the Grosvenor," etc. 
Gustavus Adolphus and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existenceo By . „ R, 

L. Fi.ETCHhR, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College. 
Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A. 
Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation, By Thomas 

HoDGKiN, author of " Italy and Her Invaders," etc. 
Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H. R. Fox Bourne, auth 

of " The Life of John Locke," etc. 
Julius Caesar, and the Organisation of the Reman Empire. By W. WarI' 

Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. 
John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Reformers iJv 

Lewis Sergeant, author of " New Greece," etc. 
Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary 

France. By W. O'Connor Morrls. 
Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots of France. By P. F. Willert, M.A., Fel- 
low of Exeter College, Oxford, 
Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J. L. Strachan-Davidson, MJ. 

Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 
Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of American Slavery. By Noah Brooks. 
Prince Henry (of Portugal) the Navigator, and the Age of Discovery. By C. R. 

Beazlev, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. 
Julian the Philosopher, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity. 

By Alice Gardner. 
Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By Arthur Hassall, 

M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. 
Charles XII., and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1719. By R. Nlsbet 

Bain. 
Lorenzo de' Medici, and Florence in the 15th Century. By Edward Armstrong, 

M.A., Fellow of Queens's College, Oxford. 
Jeanne d'Arc. Her Life and Death. By Mrs. Ouphant. 
Christopher Columbus. His Life and Voyages. By Washington Irving. 
Robert the Bruce, and the Struggle for Scottish Independence. By Sir Herbert 

Maxwell, M.P. 
Hannibal, Soldier, Statesman. Patriot ; and the Crisis of the Struggle between 

Carthage and Rome. By W. O'Connor Mokris, Sometime Scholar of Oriel Col- 
lege, Oxford. 
Ulysses S. Grant, and the Period of National Preservation and Reconstruction, 

1822-1885. By LiEUT.-CoL. William Conant Church. 
Robert E. Lee, and the Southern Confederacy, 1807-1870. By Prof. Henry 

Alexander Whii e, of the Washington and Lee University. 
The Cid Campeador, and the Waning of the Crescent in the West. By H» 

Butler Clarke, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford. 

To be followed by : 

Moltke, and the Military Supremacy of Germany. By Spencer Wilkinson, Lon- 
don University. 

Bismarck. The New German Empire, How it Arose and W^hat it Displaced. 
By W. J. Headlam, M.A., Fellow of King's Collage. 

Judas Maccabaeus, the Conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism. By Israel 
Abrahams, author of the " Jews of the Middle Ages." 

Henry V., the English Hero King. By Charles L. Kingsford, joint-author of the 
■ Story of the Crusades." 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. New York and London. 



The Story of the Nations. 



Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in 
announcing that they have in course of publication, in 
co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a 
series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic 
manner the stories of the different nations that have 
attained prominence in history. 

In the story form the current of each national life is 
distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy 
periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their 
philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal 
history. 

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to 
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them 
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and 
struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused 
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with 
which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- 
looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from 
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted 
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes have been planned 
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive 
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 
the great Story OF THE NATIONS ; but it is, of course, 
not always practicable to issue the several volumes in 
their chronological order. 



The "Stones" are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated 
and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol., 
cloth, $1.50. Half morocco, gilt top, $1.75. 

The following are now ready : 



GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harri- 
son. 

ROME. Arthur Oilman. 

THE JEWS. Prof. James K. 
Hosmer. 

CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 

NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boye- 
sen. 

SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan 
Hale. 

HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery. 

CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. 
Church. 

THE SARACENS. Arthur Gil- 
man. 

THE MOORS IN SPAIN. 
Stanley Lane-Poole. 

THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne 
Jewett. 

PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 

ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. 
Rawlinson. 

ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 
Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 

ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 

IRELAND. Hon. Emily Law- 
less. 

TURKEY. Stanley Lane- 
Poole. 

MEDIA, BABYLON, AND 
PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. 
Gustave Masson. 

HOLLAND. Prof. J. TLorold 
Rogers. 

MEXICO. Susan Hale. 

PHCENICIA. Geo. Rawlinson. 

THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen 
Zimmern- 



EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Al-= 
fred J. Church. 

THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. 
Stanley Lane-Poole. 

RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. 

THE JEWS UNDER ROME. 
W. D. Morrison. 

SCOTLAND. John Mackin- 
tosh. 

SWITZERLAND. R. Stead 
and Mrs. A. Hug. 

PORTUGAL. H. Morse Ste- 
vens. 

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. 
C. W. C. Oman. 

SICILY. E. A. Freeman. 

THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. 
Bella Duffy. 

POLAND. W. R. Morfill. 

PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson. 

JAPAN. David Murray. 

THE CHRISTIAN RECOV- 
ERY OF SPAIN. H. E. 
Watts. 

AUSTRALASIA. GrevilleTre- 
garthen. 

SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. 
M. Theal. 

VENICE. Alethea Wiel. 

THE CRUSADES. T. S. 
Archer and C. L. Kingsford. 

VEDIC INDIA. Z.A.Ragozin. 

BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice. 

CANADA. J. G. Bourinot. 

THE BALKAN STATES. 
William. Miller. 

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 
R. W. Frazer. 

MODERN FRANCE- Andr6 
Le Bon. 



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